A duty held by darkness
by SortaCore
Summary: He wasn't wearing these clothes a few seconds ago. And what were these scrolls in his hand? / A preteen is ordered to infiltrate Konoha and observe a certain naïve shinobi. By himself! / Narutoverse with minor time-travel, canon divergent. Several OC. Full summary inside, woo. (clickbait clickbait, clicky clicky clickbait, thanks for suggestion Bob)
1. Darkness invades Konoha

Disclaimers and all the details you want about this fic at the bottom, just hit Ctrl+End (or scroll manually if you're on a phone, mwa ha ha).

Please ignore InARealPickle's reviews – he seems to be a troll, judging from his own story's reviews, which are people trying to counter his negative reviews.  
His reviews on this story include complaining that the story follows the OC… which makes no sense.

* * *

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 1: Darkness invades Konoha**_

* * *

_'Well, I wasn't expecting __**that**__. I'm being spotted, and I'm not even __**close**__ to the gates yet.'_

His dark eyes looked up at the night guards, briefly considering his options. _'I only have a few months now. I don't want to be seen getting in, or it could screw up. Why wasn't I given an entry pass again?'_

He had considered that earlier, but nervousness made him rethink his reasoning. _'I tried talking to the Hokage, but that approach failed; even if they didn't ignore me, I certainly didn't help the scenario. This is the final reset, the third time. I can't be known of by the Hokage for at __**least**__ a few months.'_

He stepped forward further, the two chuunin guards glancing up to see… nothing. The darkness had wrapped around him.

Yasha stepped forward again, concealing his footsteps, but with each breath he knew he was being detected. '_Shit_.' He was barely a genin, and his stealth skills needed serious tuning to get past these guards. They were tensing up noticeably, eyes squinting as they gazed down the dark road, their eyes both seeing and hiding the pitch-black figure against the nearly-black sky. If there hadn't been light behind them from the village, their night vision would have found the contrast of black already.

There was nothing for it. He had to kill them. He couldn't wait until tomorrow night for village entry, and it was minutes before the gate closed for the night anyway, then he would be royally screwed.

Just as he was thinking that he heard the tiniest of footsteps in the village in front of him. Only the slightest shuffle.

_'Of course. The village barrier.'_

The Barrier Unit would have sensed his… _unique_ chakra and sent ANBU just as a precaution. The instruction scroll had warned him of the barrier, but didn't give him hand seals to get around it. Not that it would have mattered much; the gate chuunin were detecting him anyway.

His chakra was unfortunately the kind anyone reacted to on a subconscious level. He _reeked_ of danger. No doubt the Barrier Unit had felt that much too.

Well, he was screwed. He couldn't get out of this one. Even if he made it past the guards, the darkness he had wrapped around himself would deteriorate under the village lighting. Besides that, ANBU were elite. He had no chance of hiding his scent, his footsteps, his footprints, his breathing, heck, even muting his heartbeats…

_'Damnit. I have no tools on me. An explosive tag would instantly increase my heat, although as a distraction it might work for a while. But killing the border guards is no longer an option. Two ANBU would be impossible to deal with, and there is probably the usual team size of four.'_

His stride had paused long ago, and he was controlling his breathing as best he could, but controlling his heartbeat was beyond him. He couldn't hide himself.

How was he going to get past six far stronger people without raising the alarm?

Yasha froze in place. He had deliberately chosen to wait until ten minutes before the gate was set to close, so it would be at its darkest, but that meant he only had barely any time to sneak in. He couldn't climb over the wall in clear view of the lights, he'd be spotted in seconds.

Time was running out rapidly. He could try tomorrow, but then he'd trigger the barrier going out and that would double the security. He couldn't hide in daylight and there was no reason to think tomorrow night's security would be better. Day security was a bit more lax, but he couldn't just sleep inside the Konoha barrier – there was no cover from patrols anyway. Tomorrow wouldn't work.

Mentally, he tutted. He had no teammates, no weapon, a grand total of two explosive tags, three scrolls he couldn't afford to fall into Konoha's hands, and now about five minutes.

It was then he heard the sweet voice of his saviour. "Wait up, hold the gate!"

An old man ran down the near-empty street towards the gate, his fruit cart rumbling noisily behind him.

"Heading out so late?" a border guard asked with a forced cheerfulness, eyes still locked onto Yasha's presence.

"My grandson…" the old man forked over rather crumpled travel permits. "…nearly set the damn house on fire. It wasn't quick to tidy up."

Yasha was grinning at that. It was so _against_ the current tension. The old man clearly had very little observational skills to not pick up on the atmosphere.

"How did he do that, Reriku-san?"

They were used to him, and they still weren't _totally_ sure there was danger. That explains the half-forced conversation.

Then, Yasha got an idea. It was sadistic and dangerous, but it might just work. As slowly as he dared, he lay down, a twisted grin not leaving his face. He carefully crawled over to the middle of the road.

The old man didn't need to be crippled. He'd have to be careful with where he put the explosive note.

And that gave Yasha one more opportunity: he had one spare explosive note.

* * *

Success.

He shuffled to the side, off the road, gathering as much spare darkness as he could around the middle of the road, drawing the chuunin's attention from him and to the dangerous feeling they felt coming from the road.

His hands joined together, taking one brief look at the two chuunin's tense faces. Good. They were looking down the middle of the road, where Reriku was hastily retreating with his noisy cart. He wasn't out of their line of vision, but he was nowhere near close; the surprise should do the rest.

"Katsu," Yasha breathed with a one-handed seal.

The fruit cart exploded.

* * *

The dark-haired boy slunk around the gate as the two chuunin and three ANBU left the village, going to the aid of the man whose cart had suddenly erupted in a fireball.

Hoping the fourth ANBU was observing the cart, probably while radioing it in, Yasha slapped his last explosive note on the side of the nearest building inside the gate, then ran forward in the shadows, darkness still wrapped around him.

His heart thudding in his ears, he ignited the second remote explosive seal and ran, using the brief noise of the explosion to run faster and a bit more noisily.

It was cruel. He hoped the old man had survived the splinters and his fruit hadn't been too much of his finances.

He knew the way to the orphanage and ran towards his target at full pelt, still retaining the cloak despite the fact the village's shade were nowhere near consistent enough, so he was still very visible for a shadow.

There was just a minute or less before ANBU night patrols began, as soon as the gate was timed to shut, so he had no time to waste.

He dived to the wall below the only open orphanage window and calmed his breathing below it. The light coming from inside wasn't significant enough to be a danger to his cloak, but channelling chakra to his ears, he could hear muffled cries of pain.

He scowled angrily as he pinpointed it – the farthest edge of the building, of course. Beating kids wasn't something you want advertised. The fact he was the same age as the beaten kid didn't help cool him.

_'I used to be genin, before I was reset. Now I'm pre-Academy, excluding the high rank of my bloodline. But can I kill that adult with my current abilities?_

_'Yes. I'd like nothing more than to hear his short shriek of agony followed by a heavy thudding sound of a body hitting the floor. And if the only way is brutal surprise, so much the better.'_

But the blame falling on either his target or him would work against his objectives. Killing the abuser was out. '_A knockout then.'_

Yasha hopped deftly into the window and made his way to the room, flinching with every hard whacking sound and muffled yelps of pain. '_How should I go about this? I brutally murdered the guy last time, but that had ruined it for Naruto…_

_'Ah, yes, killing intent. That's the key. No real mess to clear up, since it's just a mental attack. It probably has an area effect, but Naruto will just have to deal with it.'_

And Yasha had near-unbeatable KI – without releasing a speck of anger or chakra, people were scared of him instinctively. All he needed was a tad of the darkness he controlled, and it was equivalent to killing intent. And with a lot, it was horrific; literally couldn't be made more terrifying with any use of the imagination.

He finally came to a halt outside the door where the abuse was taking place, his fists clenching. He had only one last shot – no more resets. The pressure would be incredible if he thought about it. But with each jarring whack, he lost more and more ability to think calmly.

* * *

_'Why always me?'_

Naruto asked himself again. He did as he was told, he never hurt anyone, never spoke, never did anything wrong.

_'I am wrong. Just my own existence makes people hate me.'_

The wooden bat never hit his head hard enough to bring relief. He had only a couple of nights when the beatings had knocked him out cold.

Sheer nausea ran through him as he cowered. The beating had only gone on for a few minutes. He had to bear with it until the man tired, which would be for a while yet.

_'Like a ninja – be strong. Like a Hokage. Stronger than this pain.'_

But sometimes, it was so hard. He held back a sob as tears mixed with the blood on his face. His nose had started bleeding a while ago, even though he had his arms in front of his face.

The blows paused. The pause dragged on further. Naruto held his sobbing down as he waited, risking a look up. The door hadn't opened. The man hadn't left, he was just panting heavily.

_'Help,' _Naruto screamed in his mind.

_'Are you sure you want that?'_ a voice responded, making Naruto's eyes widen in shock.

The man grabbed something from his pocket, roughly jamming it into the bat. With blurry eyes, Naruto tried to identify it.

A nail. The carer tapped the bat against the ground, driving it in firmly.

"Time for you to get what you really deserve, demon." He smirked.

_'Do you want help?'_ the voice asked smoothly.

_'YES,' _Naruto clenched up hard as the man swung, knowing it would hurt like nothing else. But the blow never hit.

Naruto opened his eyes to see – nothing. Pure darkness. '_Wait, was I knocked out? No, I can still move-'_

_'Don't scream,' _the smooth voice said in his head, _'This is not meant for you.'_

The lightbulb had shattered above him. That was why it was dark. Naruto could see very little, but it wasn't on and he dimly recalled a shattering noise. '_What is not meant for me?'_

And then Naruto screamed.

* * *

_'Kami damn it, I told him not to_,' Yasha scowled as he called back the darkness in the room, his night-vision picking out all the details in washed-out colour. Both occupants of the room had passed out when he wrapped as much darkness around him as he could and flashed it outwards, just shy of their bodies.

ANBU in ten seconds tops, with two ear-shattering screams like that. There wasn't _time_.

_'Sorry, Naruto,' _Yasha groaned, dropping down, rapidly unravelling a scroll and passing Naruto's bloody hand on it, the darkness still enveloping the entire room and concealing him. There wasn't _time_, his brain was screaming.

Both had fainted from the fear. That wasn't surprising; one was a civilian and the other pre-genin.

_'I only have a couple of seconds now. And no alibi if I'm stopped. I have to visit the Academy and drop the message off __**pronto**__.'_

Unceremoniously Yasha ran for it, down the hall to the other end of the building. His footsteps were as quiet as he could make them, but on a wooden floor, that wasn't particularly quiet.

He made it outside and ran to the Academy, his breath ripping painfully at him. He had no key to get in, but there was the mailbox… that'd do.

The last scroll was quickly deposited in there; his means of getting into Naruto's class. It wouldn't hold up under inspection, but should do fine for convincing Iruka.

He ran back, barely keeping quiet now, shocked that he hadn't been spotted by ANBU yet. Not a sign of them.

He had one more scroll to pass on, and that was going to be near-impossible to deliver anonymously. After all, it was meant for Uchiha Shisui.

Best leave that until later. He had a couple of weeks' breather for it before it was relevant. No need to push his luck trying to stay hidden from a teleporter _and_ ANBU night patrols.

* * *

He slowed down as he approached the orphanage again, now worried. Not a single ANBU had been detected by him. That could only mean he was completely incapable of detecting them.

There was no way in hell the commotions and movements he had caused weren't getting him noticed, nor that there wasn't enough night patrols to notice him running across the village. How long had they been tracking him?

_'No point in dwelling on whether you were already discovered; if they've seen through your disguise already, then it can't hurt to carry on the act. They're observing you to figure out what you're doing._

_'Resume your cover: you're a pre-genin, sneaking out of the orphanage for whatever childish reason, night exploration or something, and now trying to sneak back in without your carers finding you out. Completely believable if they didn't see you leave the orphanage originally.'_

The brunette slid back through the open window, awkwardly, hiding his abilities as much as possible. The reset had lost him his physical strength and mental abilities, but he kept the chakra levels from the future, and his use of darkness powers was easily genin. Slightly higher, perhaps, since this was the second time he'd done this.

By being outside, coming back in, the ANBU hopefully wouldn't connect him to the screams, but do the opposite and assume he was innocent, away from the fray that had happened; just a kid who had snuck out and was trying to steer clear of whatever was going on.

If he was interrogated, his story have so many holes a sieve would be envious, so he was not trying to get discovered as hostile. If they knew he had snuck in and were delaying their response, so much the better; he didn't need much time into weaving the village of Konoha into needing him there.

He hoped his placing of the second scroll in the Academy box had been unobserved or ignored by ANBU. He still had the first, with Naruto's blood on it, and the third, a short message for Shisui. Both highly dangerous materials.

_'Hell. Naruto's blood. What if the scent of that tipped off the ANBU? Are there any scent-detector ANBU around? Would the scent even come out of a sealed scroll?'_

Yasha hoped not. But he didn't _know_.

There wasn't _time_.

He snuck into one of the empty bunks in the orphanage. His job now was to pretend to be a new orphanage kid.

After at least an hour of complete nervousness, jumping at every creak, he fell to sleep.

An ANBU with a Boar mask crouching on the roof flicked his headset, his Byakugan fixed on the target. "He's gone to sleep."

"Roger that. I'll update the Hokage," the other member of the squad nodded, disappearing with body-flicker bursts.

The Boar ANBU adjusted his position, relaxing on the branch, the Hyuuga scratching his cheek in puzzlement. _'A kid sneaking into Konoha with explosive notes and barely any capacity to hide himself, clothes carrying a shedload of money but no sort of living resources. What __**is**__ this anyway?'_

* * *

**AN: **_Yo. *cue Kakashi eye-smile*_

Hope you enjoyed that starter. Let's get the warnings out the way so I don't have to repeat every chapter:

This fanfiction is too awesome for you to rip off. If you steal it, I'll sue you and your family and your favourite brand of toilet paper. _**Rawr.**_** :**3

The story genres and focus: suspense, adventure, action, mystery, grey morals, suspicion, time travel, dimension hopping, butterfly effect, manipulation, subplots, badasses...

Formatting throughout:  
"Speech, _emphasised speech_"  
_'Thoughts, __**emphasised thoughts**_' (single-quotes and italics, yo)

The story will be written as close to canon as possible. All characters will be (initially at least) canon personalities, and romance will not be biased in any non-canon direction, although extra characters will affect the events, in turn affecting how the relationships develop...

I have no pairing inclinations, canon or not. There may be fluff, but no lemons. I'll go as far as snogging and the bedroom door closing behind them. If you want full-blown intimacy, google it :P

I'm the sort of writer that creates character-driven stories; in layman's terms, I basically make characters, an environment, and then I let the characters 'roam free', so keeping to canon timeline will be interesting for me. You can expect all canon events to be written about, but I may skip writing about some if they're not relevant to the added characters (or Naruto himself).

The main focus of this fic is an OC called Yasha. The second focus is Naruto. However, because Yasha makes waves as he arrives in Konoha, a lot of the starting chapters are him trying to avoid getting jailed.

The way the story is written, if my OCs did nothing, canon timeline would occur - up until Kaguya appears. All the changes from canon are a result of my OCs' actions.

The story will have several non-canon bloodlines - not in canon characters though. No one canon will awaken not-given-in-canon things, _but implanted doujutsu can happen_. The bloodlines I've added are from very abandoned fanfics, other sci-fi shows, and my own slightly twisted imagination. This isn't meant to be a crossover, though.

Time-travel will be a part of this fanfic, but heavily restricted so to not make people invincible or the time-travelling wielder some sort of genius who knows just how to fix the boo-boos. Fixing may be impossible with all the limited attempts the time-traveller has - a topic noted earlier in this chapter.  
The extent of the time-travel the main OC has is just basic facts on important people, the clans, and his own bloodline. Yasha doesn't know them in detail and he has no memories of past resets or people he will meet.

Yasha also does not know about Zetsu/the real Uchiha Madara's contributions, or everything about Akatsuki. Reasons explained in next chapter.

Swearing will be light and dialled back where possible, but it's a **_realism genre_**; it'll use words real people would use, so you can expect a few F-bombs to be dropped if someone is stabbed in the lungs. It won't go out of character, though. Naruto especially. Sasuke may be nice or evil from the OC changing the path of events, but he won't be OOC.

Corrections and guidance about canon event timing should be PM'd ideally, but will be read in reviews as well. No one's complained so far, but if you find reason to, please provide source material. Note that this is more anime-based than manga-based.

Have fun, and thanks for reading! Review as you want, I admire the intellect of some people that predict things and seeing the new perspectives people have on scenes. I wouldn't see those things normally.

PS: If you haven't checked out already, see fanfic authors Kenchi618 and Blackwolf501. They write some of the best Naruto fanfics I've ever read (and in Kenchi's case, the best legal disclaimers too). I would also recommend SincereNaruto, but unfortunately he's gone AWOL for half a decade - which is kinda awkward, since he wrote one of the best fanfics for hurt/comfort that I've read.

Next chapter button/link is on the bottom right, just ahead of this text. Give it a shot - two hundred people did before you. If you favourite, make sure to follow - you'll miss updates otherwise.


	2. Yasha and Naruto

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 2: Yasha and Naruto**_

* * *

Naruto had frozen and screamed and lunged away and wet himself and fainted all at once. He woke up cringing in fear, being carried by someone.

_'I'm not dead. I'm fine. I'm-'_

He was flung forward, feeling the shock of falling, trying and failing to catch himself before he hit the unyielding pavement with a surprised yelp.

"And stay out, monster. I hope you rot where you came from," the adult snapped, slamming the door to the orphanage behind him and roughly locking it.

"No. No. Nonono!" It was icy cold out here. At least it was warm in the orphanage.

"I can't be left outside! I'll die!" Naruto crawled back up the steps to the door, feeling his body heat drain away into the pavement. A few weak thumps on the door gave him no response.

He staggered up, trying to open it but no, it was definitely locked.

_'It's so cold…' _Naruto huddled down, grabbing his knees and rocking just outside the door. The wet blood on his skin caught every cold wisp of air and painfully sapped more heat away. He could feel more injuries than he remembered from last night.

He must have been beaten again while he was unconscious.

He couldn't sleep out here. His breath wasn't creating any clouds, but it was still too cold and his clothes were ruined after the beating, they weren't providing him much heat.

They hadn't even given him his favourite jumpsuit back. How was he meant to look normal to the other kids? His Academy life was the only thing that separated him from the orphanage hell, the teachers motivating all the students with stories of bravery and recognition. If he couldn't go, he'd lose everything.

He heard a thump from nearby. He couldn't hear properly but made his way over, feeling the little heat in his stomach vanish again as he stood up.

His jumpsuit was lying on the ground outside his room's window, as well as the rest of his belongings. Relief flooded over him.

Carefully, he picked up the clothes, putting on his day clothes, rubbing away the exposed blood from his skin. As he stepped out of his pyjama trousers, he realised the large damp spot on the crotch.

He _had_ wet himself. Gross.

The Uzumaki's mind drifted back to the voice in his head as he redressed. It was so smooth, unreadable, just a purring self-confidence.

Then that _feeling_ had hit. It was like a wave of water far taller than the building had slammed down, crushing him and the carer indiscriminately. Except the wave was made of pure terror.

Naruto didn't like admitting he was scared. He wasn't scared of the beatings – they ended after half an hour or so. He wasn't scared of his classmates – he had much stronger pain tolerance than they expected, and they had never done anything physical to hurt him anyway. Although some of them were downright mean, that was verbal only.

But that _thing_ was easily the scariest presence he could ever imagine. It terrified him to the point he didn't even know what he was doing. Just remembering it made him shiver. He'd heard about the Kyuubi, but it couldn't be that. The demon fox was _huge_, from what he read. No way did it fit inside the orphanage building without destroying it. And that brief flash of solid darkness he kept remembering was human-shaped. A demon?

The carers must have blamed him for hurting the other carer. They didn't take pity on him anyway, not ever. Naruto took one look at his blood-stained pyjamas and discarded in the nearest street bin, feeling a sense of relief as a part of the orphanage was thrown away. '_Good riddance. Now I need to think like I do in the Academy. Look on the bright side…_

_'I can't get beaten if I'm kicked out. Maybe I can find a place to hide in the Academy at night. It would be warmer than out here. Then all my life will just be Academy. I'd wake up and sleep there. It will be awesome!'_

Naruto cleaned himself off and realised it was dawn. He made his way to the Hokage monument, but his thoughts betrayed him to last night again as he sat on top of the Fourth Hokage.

He had _wet himself_. And _screamed_.

_'That was not very ninja-y_,' Naruto thought, _'but that voice… and that __**presence**__… what was it?!'_

* * *

_'Well, good. I wasn't found out yet, then,'_ was Yasha's joyous first thought come the next morning.

The other children weren't particularly shocked to find a newcomer had appeared during the night, although they steered clear of him, breakfast more important to them.

Besides that, his chakra leaked danger in dark areas, including the dimly-lit orphanage. That danger was mostly felt subconsciously, so no one could put a finger on it, but it lead to them distrusting and avoiding him out of fear.

Yasha just avoided the adults at the orphanage as best he could and just ran for it to the Academy. _'With a huge amount of luck, I can get away with this; maybe the ANBU patrols __**have**__ completely disregarded me due to my age. Unlikely as hen's teeth, as I was breaking curfews and there were several disturbances, butttttt…'_

He paused in his run and began a slow stroll. _'Let's go over the plan, again. I'll think it over, my past up 'til now. Start from the start, as the instruction scroll had read._

_'Where did I leave it? Oh yeah, under the planks in Naruto's room. Anyway, according to the scroll…'_

* * *

Yasha had an unremarkable life as an orphan, outside Konoha, until a white-haired boy called Zack had showed up.

Zack showed Yasha how to interact with darkness. And when it became apparent he knew more about Yasha than the brunette knew about himself, Yasha had stopped arguing and listened carefully.

According to Zack, Yasha had a bloodline limit, a highly rare one that only occurred in one person at a time, unlike normal bloodlines. When the last carrier was killed, a new person would suddenly manifest the ability. It was worth noting there was a matching, opposite bloodline.

Yasha's bloodline didn't have a name as far as Zack knew, but it simply involved control carnivorous swarms of incredibly small insects. They stuck to shadows to hide themselves, and found his chakra attractive.

When they were placed on a person by Yasha, they marked them for death by creating extra shadows, identical to the person's real shadow. Nearly unnoticed and undetected by most people, the swarms invisibly grew in numbers, until there was enough to strip the person to bones in an instant.

At that point they attacked – like tiny airborne piranhas, they went to work, eating everything shy of chakra networks and bones. Animal or person didn't matter to them.

Normally, they weren't that numerous, and so were nowhere near the level to be that aggressive; so they just fed on things that were already dead, joining the insects that normally fed on it.

After telling him that, Zack told Yasha he could send him back in time by a few months to carry out some work for him. He gave Yasha warnings – the destruction of the Konoha by Orochimaru, the Uchiha massacre, etc.

The Orochimaru invasion hadn't happened by the time Zack was around, but the second _had_ happened a few weeks ago.

Yasha was going to be sent back in time a few months before the Uchiha massacre; he was meant to warn Shisui about Danzō stealing his eye with 'Izanagi' (although the name meant nothing to Yasha). That way he'd prevent the massacre by giving Shisui a chance with both eyes.

That just left two objectives: Yasha's bloodline's inherent rival, and finally Naruto. While Naruto was not something central to the massacre, he was nonetheless important; both as a way to keep Konoha dependent on Yasha, and apparently he was significantly involved in future events against powerful enemies.

Yasha wasn't against the plan (whoever would disobey someone who knew the future was beyond stupid), but Zack mentioning Yasha could be adopted by a Konoha-only clan that controlled shadows was definitely added to his desire to carry it out. Zack did warn that Yasha couldn't meet him later, aand definitely not to tell past Zack about the future Zack's plans – assuming they even met up.

"Paradoxes and all that," he'd explained dismissively.

Zack went on to tell Yasha he had already told Yasha all this before. _Twice._

The first reset – or first time Yasha had been sent back – Yasha had completely forgotten why he had been sent back, and was confused with wearing new clothes from the future; that was the only real change Yasha had met.

Zack hadn't expected to meet Yasha back at the orphanage in the same place, with particularly with no change at all, but had explained everything again. They eventually reasoned only Zack, with his time-control bloodline, could remember the future if he sent himself back.

The fact Yasha noticed his clothes mysteriously swapping was the only thing that made Zack try again. Apparently physical items Yasha was wearing, along with his physical body, would be sent back; his memory of the future that had just rewound would vanish though.

That deduction lead to the second reset, equipped with instructions in scrolls written from the future Yasha, to the rewound Yasha.

The rewound Yasha had been convinced to action by the scrolls and had gone to the Hokage and warned him about the massacre, spilling the beans to no one else. The Hokage had accepted the warning and gave Yasha a place in the village as a genin, but the massacre still happened pretty much the same way. Zack was displeased with it and decided to reset again; Yasha agreed since it felt like a failure and he didn't like failing.

This third reset, Zack had warned Yasha, was the last. Zack could only send a particular person back in time three times; that was the limit of his bloodline. Zack pleaded with Yasha to be as careful as he could be, and to make sure everyone was warned; basically, deal with it separately to the Hokage (as he clearly couldn't fix shit), and Yasha had to make sure that ANBU didn't interfere and drag him before the Hokage again.

The future Yasha then made four scrolls – one for past Yasha, explaining this mess of a scenario; one for Shisui, a short warning re Danzō stealing his eye (whatever he wanted _that _for); one for the Academy, carefully sealed with the Hokage's signature and stamp, granting Yasha a place as a student in the Academy, in Naruto's class, despite the _very_ late start; and one final summoning scroll, coded for Naruto's blood with a Person summon, for bringing Yasha to him, good for protecting him on the likely chance Yasha was put on a different team to Naruto.

Yasha had a very powerful bloodline, when it came to destructive capacity and intimidation. However, both of those were very dangerous and so he needed to hide his capability, only bringing out the big guns when Naruto was in serious trouble. With a Henge, he could hide his identity when he unleashed the full extent of his power.

The summon scroll didn't read Person, it read Darkness; a minor change but one Yasha insisted on –for the unusual nature of what would be summoned. Essentially, once Yasha got there, he would go berserk. Something that could be summoned at any time could be exploited to work out Yasha's identity; so he might as well look as mysterious as he could.

Zack had obliged, so the scroll read Darkness. Yasha don't know how he got hold of the scroll, though. Apparently he bought it.

So Yasha was going to lead two lives. One as Naruto's summon-able evil death destroying… guy, and one as Naruto's friend. Zack had wanted Yasha to befriend Naruto, warning Yasha of the abuse he suffered with, but saying if push came to shove, leave him and focus on delivering the messages and preventing Konoha's destruction.

Naruto had survived on his own before, after all, even becoming a great ninja, but Yasha was not a fan of child neglect. It wasn't right to leave him alone. Yasha had agreed strongly with Zack he had wrote in the instruction scroll, "Past Yasha, if you abandon him, I will punch you so hard your ancestors will get bruises."

Motivating.

* * *

_'So, yeah. Here I was. Past me, with future knowledge I shouldn't have. A boy to befriend, a clan to save, a village to help.'_

Yasha sighed. With that internal monologue, he had reached the doors of the Academy. He was easily the earliest student there, having skipped breakfast so the carers didn't see him, and ran most of it, but spotted an orange figure approaching.

Naruto looked depressed. A proverbial rain cloud hovered over him, a sharp clash to his cheerful orange.

Yasha quickly stepped out of his field of view behind a tree. Clearly this was a side of Naruto few saw. He wouldn't want to interfere too quickly; Naruto would get defensive and suspicious.

_'The scariness of my chakra is barely anything during daylight,' _Yasha mused, _'but still, I don't want to be spotted until it's nice and bright. He won't make the connection to distrust me when my bloodline's influence is at its weakest.'_

Naruto wasn't hiding his face, but Yasha could see he was planning to cover it up. At least two long cuts and several bruises hadn't healed up, visible on his face, the only part of his body that was visible.

Yasha gritted his teeth. Naruto was vulnerable like this; no trace of the bright smile the instruction scroll had said was common to him. Yasha didn't want to startle him, but he didn't want Naruto to be teased for 'training stupidly and injuring himself'.

On the other hand – maybe Yasha _did_. A bit of teasing from others now would make Naruto desire friendship all the more. _'Okay, I leave him alone __**one**__ day. Maybe a half day. Then I befriend him. I have to balance the suspicion of instantly befriending him while being watched… with taking so long to move in that Konoha will just chuck me into T&amp;I before they have a good reason not to upset me. Being the only close friend of a Jinchūriki is a good factor in whether the Hokage will keep me around, so I have to befriend him quick.'_

Yasha looked around quickly, but had nowhere to hide once Naruto got closer… so he walked off quietly, changing his direction midway so it didn't look like he came from the tree he was just hidden behind. He didn't check Naruto's reaction to his presence or even if the blond had spotted him.

* * *

After about twenty minutes of kunai practice, Yasha knew two things: other students were turning up for school, and his aim with kunai was_ shit._

'_Kami help us all if I ever have to use it in combat. Maybe I'll luck out and knock enough of the environment down to __**crush**__ my targets.' _He laughed to himself as he collected the practice wooden kunai and put them back in the box.

"Time for class soon," a teacher called across from the door, holding back a smirk at what he had seen of Yasha's poor performance. Dark brown hair, scar across the nose, and standard green Konoha dress. Yasha hadn't noticed him arrive.

"You saw that?" Yasha grinned at him. "I just need to add explosive notes to make up for it."

The teacher's smirk grew into a chuckle. "Yep," Yasha continued as if he hadn't noticed, "if you can't solve a problem with explosives, you're not using enough explosives."

He got an outright laugh out of that and a friendly shove on the back. "Get on with you!" the teacher laughed, chuckling all the way.

Yasha realised he didn't know where he was going, and spoke up quickly. "Err, I'm meant to report to Iruka, the Hokage sent me."

"The Hokage?" The man's laughter quelled in seconds and his tone became serious. "I haven't seen anything from the Hokage. I'm Iruka, by the way," he added as an afterthought.

_ 'Shit, has the ANBU spotted it, and taken it out the mailbox? I'm so screwed.'_

"He sent a scroll to the Academy, I think," Yasha added numbly.

"Right… well, I'll go check. Come along." Iruka strode through the crowded but thinning corridors and came to a reception of sorts.

Yasha had completely bypassed it on the way in, not that it mattered. He didn't know anything about Iruka, his future self had only said he was the teacher of Naruto and so the best bet was to get in his class via the fake-Hokage-order-scroll.

Sweat formed on his forehead as Iruka casually asked for any mail. He had no plans for if the Hokage scroll had been captured. He still had the summoning scroll life, but that would heavily limit his role in Naruto's wellbeing.

He'd have to chalk it up to the lack of a scroll being a prank, and high-tail it out the Academy _pronto_.

Iruka had a small handful of scrolls, apparently a fairly popular guy, and Yasha couldn't tell if his was in there. And just then the bell rang for start of class, making the tense boy jump.

"Damn," Iruka muttered, glancing at the clock. "Look, I don't think you're lying, but I don't have time to check through these. Come to my class and I'll check there."

Yasha's apprehension only grew worse.

Iruka gave him a warning glare. "And if you _are_ lying, you'd better admit it now."

"No, no, not at all, Iruka-san," Yasha blurted. _'Damnit, now the damage factor is even higher if the scroll isn't there!'_

No, he could work with this. Naruto would see him in the class and that'd give him an opportunity to speak to 'that weird kid who pulled a prank'. '_Yeah, this could still work. For crying out loud, stop sweating!'_

Iruka quickly got his class settled, and the bulk of their attention turned to the new brunette. Yasha's dark eyes trailed all the faces, memorising as best he could. Shikamaru, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura – the instruction scroll named them and described their appearance, but the rest were unknowns – he only had details on their clans' specialties.

Yasha fidgeted awkwardly as Iruka looked at the four scrolls, and with a large amount of relief Yasha noticed his one was still in there.

"Dude, you stink." A boy with brown hair and red marks on his cheeks wrinkled his nose, a white dog yapping on his head.

"So does your mum," Yasha snapped back automatically.

"What?!" The boy instantly rose to the bait.

"I'm kidding. She smells like sunshine and rainbows." Yasha waved a hand dismissively, turning his back on the boy. The class started snickering.

Iruka quickly spoke up. "Kiba, don't be rude. Yasha, you as well."

Someone muttered 'troublesome' as the class quieted and waited expectantly for Iruka to begin.

"It's this one," Yasha muttered, poking the fake scroll. Anything to hurry up this – about 30 pairs of eyes fixed on him, two sets now glaring.

Iruka swiftly unrolled it and read the message through, a mild look of disbelief appearing on his face. He glanced at the Hokage's seal again, confirming the unusual order.

Yasha's fears vanished as he spoke. "Fine. Yasha-kun, welcome to the class. Please go ahead and introduce yourself."

Yasha heaved a sigh of relief, and gathered his composure, spinning to face the crowd.

"My name's Yasha, no clan name. But you can call me Yasha-sama." Yasha grinned and bowed with obvious sarcasm.

The giggling/snorting started again. Yasha paid particular attention to Shikamaru, who barely glanced at him, Sasuke, who gave him an analysing look (friendly though), and Naruto, who was hiding his mouth behind his hand, his crinkled eyes betraying his involvement in the giggling.

Sakura looked very interested in him, smiling as well. Most of the girls seemed to like him actually, he made a note to use that to his advantage. Emotional manipulation was okay in his book.

Then Iruka whacked him across the back of the head, spoiling the moment. "Don't be silly."

"I'm being childish!" Yasha shot back. "Children do that!"

_'Answer for everything.'_ Iruka groaned inwardly. _'Not __**another**__ mischievous student. The Uzumaki is bad enough.'_

"Whatever, just take a seat. I'll be giving you the last exam we did, to make sure you're up to par."

Yasha nodded and looked at the space at Naruto's side, unsurprisingly empty; the other side held Sasuke. Behind and in front of him were a blond-haired girl and Sakura, the pink-haired girl, respectively. The scroll had mentioned Sasuke was only interested in getting stronger come the Massacre but most of the girls were only interested in Sasuke; Sakura included.

There was a black-haired girl on the other side of Naruto, on a separate desk, a girl with pale pupil-less eyes. _'Those eyes are creepy as hell,' _Yasha concluded about the girl as he took the exam paper and grinned at all the girls on his way up, even the creepy one. Best gain the favour of half the class as a ladykiller – young teens wouldn't need much to fall head over heels, what with their hormones being so unbalanced.

Iruka was taken aback at Yasha's choice of seat – not many would venture near Naruto. Then his face fell in realisation. _'Both of the mischievous ones together? How the __**hell**__ am I going to teach anything?!'_

* * *

**AUTHOR'S WARNING: FAVORITING AND FOLLOWING ARE NOT THE SAME THING!**

If you favourite, make sure you follow too. That goes for all stories and authors, not just me/mine. You'll miss out on updates otherwise.

Cheers.


	3. A tour of Konohakagure

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 3: A tour of **_**_Konohagakure_**

* * *

"Hey, I'm Yasha," Yasha greeted Naruto as he sat.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto grinned back, a hand carefully concealing his facial injuries. "I'm gonna be the next Hokage!"

Yasha noticed his concealment grimly. _'No wonder the orphanage got away with it. Naruto obviously hid it the whole time.'_

"Hokage, huh?" Yasha looked at Naruto's wide grin analytically. "Do you like paperwork or something?"

Sasuke snorted despite himself. Shikamaru gave a quick outtake of breath.

Naruto was nonplussed. "No, he's the strongest. Hokages are the strongest, and I'm gonna be one, dattebayo!"

"A Hokage, huh?" Yasha gave him a smile. "If you say so, Naruto-kun."

_'Again, only half-friendly. Don't throw it too far out there.'_

Naruto beamed like Yasha had just agreed with his goal rather than shelve it. Yasha was finding him quite a nice kid; the happiness from his dream and confidence he showed was quite uplifting. Especially considering the abuse he suffered… and that there was no person encouraging him.

Yasha gazed down at the test as Iruka started talking about shuriken throwing patterns. The instruction scroll had all the answers to this test, but he had to not stand out too much. The last thing he wanted was a second test thrown at him as a confirmation, a second one which the instruction scroll hadn't given all the answers for.

* * *

Iruka's marking had revealed Yasha had mid-high grades. Not near Sakura's and Sasuke's near-perfect levels, but up there with Shikamaru – the only test Shikamaru had actually tried in, and Iruka still suspected him to have gotten some answers wrong deliberately to avoid any extra attention of being top.

He considered if Yasha had hidden his capability as well, but it was doubtful. The Hokage's scroll had revealed Yasha was an outsider, an orphan, now newly incorporated as a Konoha civilian; having started his Academy year nearly too late to catch up, Iruka didn't see the point in Yasha deceiving the teacher about his current knowledge and making it worse for himself. The Hokage said Yasha's knowledge was spotty but his potential made him very likely to pass this year.

So, Yasha was quite capable, even if his kunai skills needed work. The Hokage clearly hadn't made a mistake; Iruka couldn't put his finger on it, but Yasha gave off just the slightest sense of danger that Iruka recalled from his battles. He felt constantly ready to attack.

That with his confident joking from the outset was making him a favourite with most of the class; he looked similar enough to Sasuke, with his dark hair and dark eyes, except Yasha was outgoing and mildly more cheery.

The girls were definitely keen on him, judging from the hushed whispers. Only Kiba was opposed, seeming to want to lob his pencils at the new kid whenever Iruka turned his back on them. After that quip about his mother Iruka wasn't surprised.

When the bell rang for lunch Iruka dismissed them, and noticed Naruto was holding his hands around his head almost protectively as he left. He had been guarding his head most of the day too… Sasuke then started holding a conversation with his lookalike Yasha, and even _chuckled_ at something Yasha said.

Chuckling was not something Sasuke did often. The genius had probably picked up on Yasha's danger-emitting and been intrigued. Kami knew Sasuke was the sort of person who liked to appear powerful; he wasn't an ego-driven person, but then his brother had set a high bar.

Itachi's personality, an ever-present textbook Uchiha stoicism, was a trait Sasuke had been trying to duplicate of late. Retaining your composure regardless of scenario _was_ an admirable trait, but… it just made the young Uchiha clam up very often, and lose a lot of his childish reactions such as belly laughs, easy tempers and open crying.

It felt a bit too soon for Iruka for the kids to be so controlled; but he couldn't really say anything against it – it was a skill they would need eventually, after all. Sasuke was still reasonably midway between stoic and childish.

With that thought he made his way to Mizuki. A topic to discuss over lunch, perhaps the fellow teacher could give some thoughts about it.

* * *

Yasha chatted with Sasuke but soon left, wandering over to Naruto, who was holding onto a swing, looking very dismal. No reason to wait any more to befriend him; teasing by Naruto's peers would have helped the relationship by contrast… but it hadn't happened and didn't look likely anyway.

Yasha had been sent back with a lot of money – a couple hundreds of thousands in ryou. Yasha hadn't read anything in the instruction scroll about where his future self had got it, but knew it was meant for rent and food until Yasha graduated, wherewith the Hokage would pay the rent for Naruto. Why the Kage didn't let Naruto live alone as is, was an interesting question; maybe he thought he wouldn't take good care of himself, and adult carers were a better choice for him?

Naruto didn't exactly seem mature. Sadness was a prominent part of maturing, but he still didn't have the independence of an adult. Unlike most of his Konoha peers however, Yasha was used to hard conditions. He was used to insults and people trying to control him. He was absolutely fine with being ostracised. He didn't need attention and if someone was friendly, he would just suspect ulterior motives.

In Naruto's scenario, he'd probably have left the village. Why stick around people who will make your life uncomfortable?

The only problem was Naruto didn't know it'd be better if he left. For all he knew all the villages outside would ostracise him too, plus there were bandits and enemy villages, so he probably didn't even consider it. Of course, the Hokage would see to it he was brought back, but Naruto still had no reason to stay in the general Konoha population.

Bringing himself back to the present, as he unhurriedly approached the swing, he reconsidered. The scrolls were placed; the scene was set to achieve his objectives; everything was going perfectly. Almost _too_ perfectly.

Not a trace of the ANBU gate squad, ANBU night patrols, Iruka being suspicious of him, or anything really. Yasha was just waiting the other shoe to drop; he was hardly one of the luckiest people alive.

No point to think about that though; he'd know sure enough in time. Best integrate into Konoha as firmly as possible, stick some roots in people's lives, making uprooting cause a lot of damage.

And the one person a relationship would matter most with to the higher-ups in Konoha?

"Yo, Naruto-kun!" Yasha called. "I'm gonna go grab some lunch, you want anything?"

Naruto's head snapped up in shock and he quickly hid his face again. The cuts had all but faded beneath the blood, and the bruises were smaller than the morning.

_'Impressive, Kyuubi, it'd normally take weeks for that much,'_ Yasha thought sombrely.

"What… um… no, sorry." Naruto looked down dismally. "I have no money, dattebayo."

"No biggie. You're a future Hokage. You can pay me back later." Yasha grinned.

Naruto's head snapped back up in shock again. Yasha was surprised he didn't get whiplash. "Really?" he asked in disbelief.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Yasha kneeled with mock devotion. "My wallet is yours."

"Um…" The blond looked totally shocked by Yasha, but the sudden hope in his eyes was unmatchable.

_'Seeing that… this was totally worth the reset. If I hadn't befriended him, I would've __**deserved**__ that ancestor-decimating punch.'_ Yasha grinned as he turned around, gesturing lazily over for Naruto to follow.

Naruto practically _launched_ to Yasha's side, grabbing his arm childishly. "Wow! Awesome! Can we go to Ichiraku's for ramen?"

"Ramen?" Yasha repeated in confusion. "Wassat?"

* * *

Naruto led/dragged him over to the stand, a rather compact little thing with only six seats, the whole way chattering at full pelt about ramen's omnipotence or words to that effect. Yasha tended to tune out people who rambled. If you can't cut it short, you probably are repeating yourself.

"Hey there, Naruto-kun," a brown-haired girl greeted cordially. Her eyes lit up somewhat as Yasha was dragged in. "And you bought a friend?"

Naruto grinned as he hurriedly took a centre seat. "Ohaiyo Ayame-san, this is Yoshi-san."

"It's Yasha," the black-haired boy corrected, taking a seat next to him. "Give me whatever makes you smile, miss."

Naruto looked over in confusion at Yasha's wording, and then dismissed it as his stomach growled. "Three bowls of pork ramen, please!"

Yasha grinned up at Ayame as she hurriedly turned away to hide her slight blush. Girls and their love of tall, dark and handsome.

Well, maybe just dark and handsome.

He hoped she didn't have a sadistic streak. That desire for 'what makes you smile' could become anything evil. Ramen with quadruple pepper, for example.

* * *

Yasha wondered how Naruto managed to put away eight bowls. Surely that was breaking some law of physics. And biology. He himself only managed nearly two, and was stuffed.

"Um, isn't break over already? Quite a while ago?" Yasha realised. He'd fed Naruto until the guy stopped eating, since he had no worries about his ability to afford it with his sponsor's funds, but that was proving a bad idea.

"Oh darn! See ya Ayame-san!" Naruto was about to run off but Yasha caught his arm.

"Hold it!" Yasha paid and watched Ayame's eyebrows go up at the 10,000-ryou bill she had been presented with – the highest denomination around. Naruto frowned at it as well, somewhat awed.

Ayame leant forward, covering her mouth. "Yasha-kun, why is Naruto-kun covered in bruises?"

"I trained him a little too rough," Yasha lied. He knew perfectly well who did it, but Ayame would definitely notify the Hokage, and who knew how much attention that would bring to Naruto, and indirectly, to Yasha himself. "This is to make up."

Ayame handed back the change with a smile. "Okay, thanks for coming!"

_'Dodged that one,'_ Yasha sighed, only to feel himself pulled away. "Naruto, stop!"

"What?" Naruto asked panicky, waving his arms. "We're late!"

"Hokages don't care if they're late," Yasha said, not wanting to run after that big meal.

"They're faster than us, so they wouldn't _be_ late," Naruto pointed out.

"Good point, but I'm not running. You can catch the heat with me or abandon me," Yasha wove his web around him.

"…" Naruto froze up for a bit before walking with Yasha. "Okay, Yasha-san."

Yasha patted the slightly smaller Naruto on the head like a pet. "Good Hokage."

Naruto scowled. It looked hilarious.

Yasha was looking forward to this. He had money, someone who he could already manipulate, and objectives that

* * *

"You're late on the first day." Iruka raised an eyebrow.

"Naruto was showing me around," Yasha half-lied, "and I didn't notice the time. Sorry, Iruka-sensei."

Naruto apologised as well and the double dose of unexpected politeness successfully pacified the teacher. "Hmph." Iruka grunted. _'At least Yasha is polite when he needs to be. Seems to be rubbing off on Naruto, too.'_

"Don't let it happen again, you two. Naruto, show him around _after_ school."

"Hai, Iruka-sensei," Naruto said meekly enough.

Sasuke had raised an eyebrow slightly as the two entered as well, _'Yasha abandoned lunch with anyone in the class for Naruto? How odd – he's good enough to enter after three-quarters of the year had passed, and most prodigies stick together. What does he see in Naruto?'_

Most kids avoided Naruto, and most adults glared at him, something Sasuke had noticed a while back. Even the teachers seemed to be in on whatever was making them dislike Naruto. Sasuke's own father had even warned Sasuke not to get too involved with Naruto, saying he was a bad influence – and Sasuke could at least see where he was coming from. Pranking and yelling.

The entire lunch break consisted of the two biggest fangirls attempting to get him into a conversation and insulting each other, with lots of squealing, and towards the end Sasuke found himself wishing the darker Yasha had been around. Yasha gave off a slight sense of danger and a lot of self-confidence, something Sasuke secretly admired. Coming home to stories of Itachi being told along the street got old quickly, and Sasuke was easily top of the class, and had no one to respect because of it. When you're at the top of the ladder, you can only see people below you.

Naruto seemed to look up to Yasha like some sort of… Sasuke didn't know, but it was close. They'd only just met a few hours ago and already the two were snickering at something behind Iruka's back, like they had been friends for years.

Sasuke would've joined in, since they were sat right beside him, but Naruto was closest and there was no way he was talking to the dead-last, what with his father warning against it. He wished Naruto and Yasha would swap seats so he could hold a conversation with the dangerous guy unimpeded.

"My kunai aim is totally crap," Yasha volunteered to Naruto. "I'll need a lot of explosive tags to actually be any sort of dangerous."

Sasuke glanced over analytically as Naruto quietly chuckled. _'Is Yasha actually a weak shinobi? No, he's been admitted to the Academy three-quarters through the last year… and he has that aura about him. He's got to be strong. A weak spot, then?'_

The Uchiha noted it for future spars.

"Yasha-_kun_…" Iruka growled from the front, "…please answer this question."

Yasha investigated the board, concluding he had no idea. "Sorry, I'm not sure Sensei. I get most of it, but it's the poor handwriting that's throwing me off."

He got an earful and a detention faster than Sasuke could blink.

* * *

**AN:** The chapters get longer later! However, at the start it's mostly a village of suspicious shinobi adjusting to a suspicious outsider. They all try to outwit and work out Yasha, and he tries his best to counter it.

Give the fanfic a while to unfold its web; you won't be disappointed by how fast the tide carries you.


	4. Shisui's warning

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 4: Shisui's warning**_

* * *

Iruka glanced over the kids in after-school detention and sighed wearily. The usual lot in the mix, plus one: Kiba, who had been caught lobbing pencils at Yasha; Naruto, who had thrown some back; Shikamaru, for sleeping in class; and Yasha, who had joined Naruto in his pelting. Oddly, Chouji hadn't helped in day's mischief, but had insisted on waiting outside for Shikamaru anyway. It kind of removed the point of a detention, but with teamwork a founding principle…

Iruka hoped _this_ session would drum some sense into his pupils, but highly doubted it. He'd rebuked the same kids enough times to have reservation about that hope.

"With the Hokage's recommendation, and your test score, I expected better, Yasha. And on the first day!"

"Troublesome," Yasha muttered, his impersonation nearly making Iruka lose control despite his current Intimidation Mode.

Iruka rounded on the smirking Kiba next. "Kiba, you need to control your temper, or it'll cost your dearly as a shinobi."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered his catchword, having fixed Yasha with a hard gaze when he used it first.

"And you, Shikamaru, need to put in more effort. If I see you sleeping in class one more time, I'm telling your _parents_." Iruka's eyes glinted evilly as he used his trump card.

"But I had a good score on the last test!" Shikamaru argued, a spike of panic coming from the possibility of his mother finding out. Even his _father_ couldn't handle her when she got angry.

"You could get a _better_ one. And you're setting a bad example." Iruka gestured just behind Shikamaru where Naruto had nodded off in the sun.

Kiba grinned and flicked another pencil at Naruto.

"Ow!"

* * *

"Naruto-kun, so, show me around?" Yasha reminded as the detention attendees slouched out.

"Oh. Yeah!" Naruto grinned, remembering. "I can show you the places I buy paint, where you can find some awesome kunai…"

"How about where you live, at the end," Yasha offered, watching Naruto's expression fall as he anticipated. An orphan doesn't show around others at an orphanage. Shikamaru watched the two out the side of his eyes carefully, wondering if he was oblivious to Naruto's state.

Yasha ignored the new attention and turned to Kiba.

"Kiba, no offense meant, dude. I was sweating like a pig with thirty people staring at me. Made me jumpy."

Kiba shrugged, a bit surprised at his honesty. "It's fine. I'll just tell my mother you've been talking crap. She'd get her ninja dogs on your butt."

The white dog on Kiba's head yapped again and Kiba smirked as if it had said something.

"Yeah…" Yasha didn't know Kiba's mother at all, but dogs and butts were not a good combo. "See you around, Kiba, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru grunted and Kiba huffed disdainfully as they separated.

* * *

Naruto proceeded to show Yasha around – a place to buy paints, a few to buy clothes, the Hokage monument, the ramen stand again (much to Yasha's amusement), and at Yasha's request, he showed him to the Uchiha clan compound.

The Uchiha-folk, the massacre having not happened yet, were still somewhat cold to the villagers, less so to Uchiha-lookalike Yasha, who got curious looks.

"Hey, _boy_," someone called to Naruto, "are you an Uchiha?"

It was obvious that he wasn't, with the blond hair, but that wasn't the reason for the hostility. The Kyuubi's invasion, coupled with the fact Kyuubi could be controlled with Sharingan, lead to the Uchiha being suspect in the cause of the Kyuubi's appearance. It was one of the reasons the coup was being planned.

Yasha spoke back in his defence. "He is! He just fell in a pot of yellow paint."

Naruto glared at him, then at the speaker, then much to Yasha's shock, transformed into a naked girl, blowing the speaker a kiss.

* * *

The next few minutes were a blur of running from the proud and shocked Uchiha. No mean achievement, especially when Yasha was holding something to his nose. The two were hiding behind bins in an alley and chuckling to themselves as the last follower ran past.

"What are you two doing?" a voice asked.

Yasha looked up to see a stoic figure, wearing a high-collar black shirt and dark trousers. Like all of the Uchiha, he had dark eyes and dark hair. His voice was expressionless, with onyx eyes under which were long, pronounced tear-troughs. He had jet-black hair that was pulled back in a low ponytail and his face was framed with centre-hair which was chin-length at the sides and back.

Yasha didn't know him, but recognising his strength was like recognising water made you wet. He was obviously paying more attention to Naruto than Yasha, but his shadow held more darkness around him – a sure sign he was a killer, a funeral director or a butcher, and Yasha seriously doubted the latter two from the man's silent footsteps. An experienced ninja then.

"I'm impersonating an Uchiha." Yasha grinned, throwing his bloodied tissue away

"That's illegal," the ninja said indifferently, looking down at the two 12-year-olds.

"Do you know where I can find Shisui?"

The other ninja's face twitched with a rapidly-suppressed emotion. "Shunshin no Shisui-kun?"

'_Shisui of the Body-Flicker. Yep, that was what he was known as._ '**_kun_**_'? This Uchiha_ _knew him.'_

"Why do you want to see him?" the adult asked.

"I've heard a lot about him," Yasha said dispassionately.

"Have you?" another voice said from a couple of inches_ behind _them.

Yasha flinched violently, and Naruto jumped about a foot into the air with a girly shriek he would later refuse to admit originated from him.

"Shisui-san?" the first Uchiha said in surprise.

"Yeah. I heard there was a new Uchiha around." Shisui grinned at the two kids. He had short and unkempt dark-coloured hair, and a permanently determined look.

"That's me!" Yasha said enthusiastically. "I have a message for you."

Naruto gave Yasha a side look, obviously perturbed. Yasha hadn't told him anything about that message; he'd just asked to be shown to the Uchiha compound.

"A message for me?" Shisui asked with some puzzlement. He'd never seen this kid before, but honestly couldn't tell if he was an Uchiha. The eyes and hair fitted, but he had none of the Uchiha pride – thankfully enough, that was half the reason behind the upcoming coup, injured pride. And any message important enough to give to an active ANBU would be delivered by an adult at least.

But at the same time, there was something subtly scary about him. Very slight, but detectable. He felt like a killer. No, like someone who could kill with ease given the chance. No way was he part of Root, with those easy emotions. He definitely wasn't in ANBU at all – he wasn't particularly strong, and his chakra was very low, about genin level. But something was just _off_. And it wasn't just the fact he was hanging around with the Kyuubi Jinchūriki.

A quick glance at Itachi confirmed it. He had twigged the subtle danger too. They both activated their Sharingan simultaneously.

Judging from both of the kids' jump of surprise, they weren't used to Sharingan. Yasha's chakra was rapidly investigated.

Both men took a step back in shock. "Who are you?" the non-Shisui snapped.

"My name's Yasha…" Yasha attempted to appear normal but it wasn't happening under the gaze of twin pairs of Sharingan. He suddenly wanted to leave, quickly.

Shisui watched with great interest. This Yasha's chakra was interesting to look at. It was like his chakra was made up solely of Yin chakra. It was completely black instead of blue and didn't even form the normal small particles like regular chakra, but had far tinier particles, which flowed like a river, so miniscule the Sharingan couldn't even trace it.

It wasn't just Yin. It was something the Sharingan automatically detested, more so than a Bijū's chakra. And Yin chakra was spirit chakra, not body. There was no way his body was made up of solely spirit chakra.

_'Reika no Jutsu [Spirit Transportation Technique]?'_ Shisui considered. He had heard rumours of a soul being separable with and transported away from the body, but not just wandering around without effort. True, he'd never _seen_ the technique, let alone the chakra of the user, but that would make sense. Why a spirit transport though? Who knew how to use it? And wasn't the Reika no Jutsu an S-Rank technique only a couple of people could use? There was no way a genin could do it.

Something was definitely off.

Then Naruto broke the silence. "_Awesome…_"

The two Uchiha looked at him, only to find him gazing at the two Uchiha's eyes alternatively. "What's _that_? Your eyes changed!"

The two disregarded him and looked back at Yasha, who looked rather nervous, the Sharingan picking up every tremor and his increasing heart rate. He didn't know why they were staring at him, that much was clear.

"Who gave you the message?" Shisui asked, his tone suddenly urgent.

"I don't know him…" Yasha attempted to disarm him, but his thoughts were racing. There was no way he could get out of this cleanly with ignorance or intelligence. '_How? How?!'_

_'I need to be moving around freely! A slight investigation would give away my fake Hokage message and entry into the village. And Naruto's presence right now means I can't come clean, throwing impossible-to-know highly-dangerous secrets about the upcoming coup d'état.'_

_'Hmm. I have a couple of options, though. First, I know about Akatsuki. I can blame them for Shisui's message.'_

Ironically enough Shisui's closest friend, Itachi, became a member after becoming a missing-nin. _'But were Akatsuki even formed now?'_

There wasn't _time,_ **_again_**. With every passing moment it became more obvious Yasha was hiding something. He gave up trying to come up with something better.

"Another kid did. And _he_ said it was from a tall guy with blue skin," Yasha offered, identifying Kisame, a fairly well-known missing-nin.

The two Uchiha exchanged looks. Yasha groaned inwardly. He didn't know what kind of doujutsu that was they were wielding, but they'd cottoned onto his lying easily.

"Itachi?" a familiar voice said from behind the non-Shisui.

"Sasuke?" the ninja replied, half-turning. With this distraction, he'd almost forgotten he'd been shopping with his younger brother.

_'That is Itachi?'_ Yasha thought in horror, _'One of the most powerful Uchiha ever, the one who murdered his whole clan?_

_'Shit. I need an exit quick. Both of these ninja are S-Rank level. They'd wipe me into the ground easy, my poor deception skills all the more so. One's distracted. Well, time to act like a kid, and go, pronto.'_

"Here." Yasha quickly reached into his pocket and tossed the scroll to Shisui, whose arm blurred and caught it. "Naruto, let's go."

Sasuke looked around Itachi's side. "Yasha?" he asked in confusion as the two boys ran for it down the alley and out of the Uchiha compound.

Shisui was nowhere to be seen. He didn't want to be seen with Itachi by another Uchiha. No doubt he was following the two boys. Itachi deactivated his Sharingan and turned back to his younger brother.

"You know him, Sasuke?" Itachi asked.

"Uh, he's a new classmate. Joined today. He's called Yasha, but I don't know his clan name."

Itachi nodded shortly. "Sasuke, let's go," he said dryly, walking off, his mind returning to the question of the upcoming coup attempt. Shisui could easily handle two genin alone.

Shisui opened the scroll carefully, but what he saw made him freeze. It was a warning about the coup, and it was hand-written in a kid's messy handwriting.

* * *

Shisui read on, his eyes widening further and further as a future was described before his eyes. Danzō, Root, the coup, Mangekyō Sharingan – there were so many huge secrets this couldn't be made up.

It gave a date for the coup. And ended with a warning that Yasha was not to be harmed or interfered with at least until the coup date had been avoided.

There was no explanation of Yasha's dark chakra in the scroll nor did it look like Yasha was anything more than a messenger. He was only an afterthought in the scroll, and his surprise reaction to regular Sharingan wasn't faked. He must not have known about Mangekyō, meaning he couldn't be the author.

Shisui felt a headache coming on. The possibilities of how this scroll existed were all ridiculous. He could always use genjutsu on Yasha, and hope he revealed more. Whoever this scroll's author was, unless it was the Hokage, they were a serious threat that couldn't be ignored. And the Hokage wouldn't communicate this way nor be able to obtain this knowledge.

Orochimaru? Danzō himself? An Uchiha that discovered they wanted to foil the coup, yet wouldn't just come out and say it to the two he knew agreed with him?

All ridiculous. There was no good explanation. He needed more information.

Before he began to pursue the two students, a ANBU appeared, flickering in front of him. "Shisui-san, the Hokage requests your presence."

Shisui gave him a surprised look but quickly cloned himself and shunshinned in bursts to the Hokage Tower. It was impossible to shunshin distances with obstacles in the way – the incredibly fast movement lead to severe injuries if misjudged, so bursts was the preferred way to do it.

"You summoned me, Hokage-sama?" he asked, kneeling on one knee respectfully.

"Yes." The wizened face looked down at him. "It's about your messenger."

* * *

**AN:** The Hokage isn't blind and the ANBU aren't inept. Surprise. However, due to Yasha's age and odd way of doing things, they're waiting it out.


	5. An evil power, a kind heart

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 5: An evil power, a kind heart**_

* * *

With a wave of the village leader's hand his ANBU guard disappeared. Shisui gazed at the Hokage with a carefully blank look.

"He's attracted my attention from the start," the Hokage explained, sitting back down and focusing on the crystal ball in front of him. Shisui nodded shortly.

"What do you know, Shisui-san? What did your Sharingan see?"

Shisui hesitated but saw no reason to hide it. "His entire body's chakra is black. As if just Yin chakra, but that's spirit chakra, obviously not something a body should have alone. The only thing close to it is an overstocked Aburame, but way too small to be kikaichu insects; my eyes can't even read their size."

"Anything else?" the Third pressed, beckoning for him to look into the ball.

"He seems dangerous, but has chakra levels of a genin." Shisui stood and walked to look in the crystal, where the two boys could be seen catching their breath. His Shisui's shadow clone was nearby, but out of sight.

"Yes. I noticed him as soon as he entered the village. The Border Unit sent an ANBU backup, and I had a look through the crystal as well. He knew the ANBU was there, and he used two explosive tags."

"Then what?"

"He went to the orphanage, somehow knocked out Naruto and a carer there with killer intent alone," the Hokage glanced up with narrowed eyes. "Obviously hostile, but then he immediately ran to the Academy. I held off the ANBU night patrols from intervening after they confirmed Naruto was… fine, and watched instead; he dropped a scroll in the Academy mailbox…" the Hokage held up the scroll, "…then he ran back to the orphanage and snuck in. ANBU tracked him inside the orphanage, but he didn't attack anyone, just went to sleep on an empty bed. Naruto was wounded but from all ANBU reports agree it had to be the carer, who's now been taken care of."

_'Taken care of.'_ Shisui didn't need to wonder too much about that, knowing the Hokage was very fond of the blond.

"The scroll's contents?" Shisui asked shortly.

The Hokage sighed. "It was a near-perfect copy of my seal and signature, telling Iruka-san, a teacher at the Academy, that Yasha was to be admitted to the current year's class by my order."

"Any other events?"

"No, he quickly befriended Naruto, oddly enough, and paid for his lunch. Then after school Naruto showed him around, and they eventually went to the Uchiha compound at his request."

Shisui nodded grimly. "Where are they now?"

"I've got ANBU watching them, and they'll take Yasha down if he makes any sort of hostile move against Naruto. But there's been nothing yet. I'd prefer if you didn't spend time overlooking him either, it'll be redundant, but seeing as he sent you a message, it's your choice."

"Do you need to see the contents?" Shisui asked.

The Hokage started. "I don't _need_ to. It's a private message and I know your standing with the village."

_'In other words, I know your standing in the coup,'_ both thought. It went without saying someone loyal enough to betray the clan for the village was going to be loyal to it in any scenario.

"Tell me if you see fit, Shisui-san." The Hokage turned away to gaze out the window.

Shisui didn't, not at this point anyway. If he offered that the scroll contained casual mentions of several S-rank or higher secrets, the Hokage wouldn't be so passive with Yasha, and the scroll told Shisui to be. He needed time to think, and judging from the coup's predicted date on the letter, he had that.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," Shisui said politely before he shunshinned out the office.

The Hokage sighed. He wasn't ready for another headache. The hostility of the Uchiha clan that only two Uchiha (covertly) stood against; and now a suspicious kid hanging around their Jinchūriki.

But he was Naruto's only friend right now; an outsider, no wonder he wasn't put out by the villagers' opinion of the blond. The Hokage couldn't bring himself to break up the friendship. Why the carer had gone postal on Naruto, Sarutobi didn't know, but he hoped it was an isolated incident. With Naruto's pranking, it wouldn't be surprising, but the carer was definitely facing jail time going that far.

The report that a _bat_ had been used on the child made him sick to the stomach. He really, _really_ hoped it was an isolated incident, but his experience told him the opposite.

* * *

"What was all that about? Those two were strong, dattebayo!" Naruto asked excitedly.

Yasha shrugged, still catching his breath. Naruto had far more stamina than him. "I don't know, Naruto-kun."

"What did the message say?"

"I don't know, I just know who it was for," Yasha lied again. He didn't like this, lying to the innocent-looking Naruto, who seemed soaked up every one of the dark-haired boy's words as truth. He knew the contents, but he'd never seen Sharingan before.

Naruto sighed. "I wanted to spar with Sasuke-teme. Can we go back?"

"No!" Yasha exclaimed, quickly catching himself as Naruto gave him a questioning look. "No, you don't hang around the Uchiha's place, Naruto. They probably would have kicked you out if I hadn't looked like an Uchiha."

"Why?" Naruto asked bluntly.

_'Because you're the Jinchūriki and the reason they're treated badly,'_ Yasha thought, _'Or because they're planning to attack the villagers, which you're one of.'_

"They're a proud people. Straight back, sticks up the rear end, you know. Your sexy transformation didn't get you a lot of admirers."

"Sticks up their…" Naruto snorted, then started rolling on the ground with laughter.

Yasha grinned, and then started laughing as well as he envisioned it. "Uchiha on a stick."

* * *

The two Nara lazed on the grass, making minimal effort to stay awake in the warm sun. Shikaku was enjoying his day off, and he wouldn't disagree with his son's method of spending it. Then his keen eyes spotted something.

"Shikamaru, who was that dark-haired boy in your class?" he asked.

"The new one?"

Shikaku grunted. "He's attracted an ANBU tail."

"ANBU?" Shikamaru sat up in surprise, but he couldn't see them (of course), just the two boys laughing.

"He has the appearance of danger," Shikaku analysed. "A dark chakra."

"Shadow chakra?" Shikamaru said in surprise. _'He knows Nara clan techniques?'_

"Similar, yes. It's a Yin release, but permanently inside his body."

"So…?" Shikamaru asked.

Shikaku took longer to answer as his brow furrowed in confusion. "He's a spirit, almost."

"A _spirit_…?" Shikamaru echoed in shock.

Shikaku pressed on quickly. "What's his name?"

"Yasha. He didn't give a clan name."

Shikaku got up and sauntered lazily to the two youngsters. "Yasha-shi?" he greeted.

"Hai?" Yasha looked up. He didn't recognise the man, dark brown ponytail with two scars on his face, but the Nara symbol on his sleeve caught his eye. Being taught by a shadow user clan was a high priority for him. "How can I help you, sir?"

"Yasha-shi, I'm going to be blunt; what experience do you have with shadows?"

"Um…" Yasha stumbled for a bit under Shikaku's analytic eye. _'It's almost as bad as Sharingan_,' he thought dryly. "I can make shadows scary."

That wasn't a response Shikaku had imagined. And he'd thought of about fifty.

"Can you show me?"

"Uh…" Yasha looked at Naruto. He couldn't use the same scary darkness now as the 'demon' Naruto was going to have summonable, not around Naruto at least. Unless he thought of some kind of explanation as to why Naruto could summon him, but he didn't have one now. "Sorry, sir, but I can't right now, Naruto's showing me around. Can I show you later?"

Shikaku looked at Naruto, who shrugged, not really seeing why they couldn't take a break from the tour – he'd run out of things to show Yasha anyway.

"Fair enough, Yasha-shi. My name's Shikaku Nara. Come see me here later tonight, say 8pm?"

Yasha nodded. "Sure. I'll look forward to it, Shikaku-san."

* * *

Naruto was out of places already. Yasha could tell from the drop in his pace.

"How about you show me where you live, Naruto-kun?" Yasha baited.

"Erm…" Naruto hesitated, then waved his hands around. "It's not exciting. You'll get bored quickly, dattebayo."

"But I want to meet your family, Naruto-kun," Yasha pressed, and he could see the happiness draining from Naruto's face. "What's wrong, Naruto?"

"Uh, I don't have a home. And I'm an orphan," Naruto muttered quietly.

"Oh, shit. Sorry," Yasha apologised profusely. He let a few seconds of pause elapse. "Would it help if I said I was the same?"

"Huh?!" Naruto gaped at him.

"I have no home. I'm an outsider. The Hokage approved me to join Konoha after I requested, and put me in the Academy yesterday." Yasha didn't know if his family was killed, but he'd never seen his parents; he'd been told they abandoned him. Whatever. "I was going to look for a place to rent, I have some cash for it. Unless you know of one."

"Uh, no," Naruto said, suddenly perking up enthusiastically. "But I'll help you find one, dattebayo!"

* * *

They searched for one over the next few hours, trailing various real estate agents, and found a poster with an ideal place – a bed, a small kitchen, and a living-room just big enough for a couple of couches.

"Hmm… still fifteen thousand ryou a month and I need to buy the couches," Yasha mused. The location of the building no doubt had affected the price. That would last just under a year if he was very tight with money. Graduation was in three months; but the next exam would be a full year later. Then he'd be screwed, if he hadn't graduated and got a good number of missions.

"Can you afford it? I could um…" Naruto waved his hands vaguely, "…find some money. Work for some. I still owe you for lunch, dattebayo."

"Nonsense." Yasha grinned. "I told you; pay me back when you're the Hokage."

Naruto's radiant grin widened and Yasha couldn't help but warm up to him a bit more.

"It's getting dark," Yasha realised suddenly. "Oh crap, it's late. I have to go see Shikaku-san. Go um, buy this apartment while I'm gone." He stuffed cash into Naruto's palm hastily. "Buy it and wait there until I come back."

"Huh…?" Naruto stared in bewilderment at the _staggering_ amount of cash in his hand, gazing after Yasha as he vanished into the distance.

Yasha ran for it, not wanting to be too late. The interest of a Nara adult was not something he wanted to waste.

* * *

"Yasha-shi," Shikaku greeted shortly. He had waited about ten minutes extra, but it was ten minutes away from home and the nagging of his wife, so…

They were in an empty part of the Nara compound, a flat square of pavement surrounded by wire fence. There was no one else in sight, and it was nearly dusk, dark red sunlight flitting across from the setting sun.

"Well, I can show you here…" Yasha said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Hai. If you would, Yasha-san."

"Alright. I will warn you though, don't move an inch, and _definitely_ don't get closer to me."

Shikaku gave a slight nod, half-perturbed by the warning.

"And, hold this." Yasha handed Shikaku a raw beef joint, much to the elder's perplexity. "You'll see why later."

Yasha took several steps back and made several seals rapidly, ending with Rat, and held out his hand, standing in the light of a lamppost in the center of the quad. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Jaaku Ryuushi."

_'Interesting. He hadn't cut himself for blood at all. Was it a fake summoning technique?' _Shikaku thought, watching hard. _'And those weren't standard summoning seals. And the first one wasn't even one of the regular sixteen seals.'_

Shikaku watched as Yasha hit his hand into the ground.

The entire ground beneath Yasha's hand flooded with black, about a metre wide, and then just as quickly the black vanished. With it came a huge sense of danger which made Shikaku tense up. An atmosphere of death fell over the place, with a smell almost like rotting flesh.

_'No,'_ Shikaku thought. He couldn't really explain it, but it was like the _expectation_ of rotting flesh. Expectation to such a degree his body started reacting to it in advance, even conjuring a smell by itself.

_'There was no summoning seal appearing on the ground. It might have been hidden by that large circle of black. But __**something**__ has definitely arrived, I can sense it easily. But where is it?' _Shikaku asked himself. Yasha seemed to be emitting an absolutely _huge_ level of killer intent. Shikaku felt like he was being reckless being around him, and the Nara clan head was used to _jounin_ levels.

Then Shikaku started. There was only one light source behind Yasha, but he had _three_ perfect shadows. And all three were slightly too dark – something only a Nara would notice.

* * *

Yasha looked nearly unaffected by the feeling of death coming off him. He was standing with his hands in his pockets, seemingly relaxed. But his slightly narrowed eyes suggested he was nervous himself, but had some experience with ignoring the feeling.

"No blood?" Shikaku asked as a start. "That's unusual for a summon. And it seems you've gained two shadows."

Yasha half-smiled. "Aye. I'm the primary target for these darkness particles to use for hiding."

"You seem unnerved by that fact," Shikaku offered calmly. He was aware the four ANBU who had been tailing were moving closer, detecting the killer intent. And some passing ninja were getting closer as well, judging from the additional people he could see glimpses of.

The boy nodded at him. "Yes. This stuff is pretty much as dangerous as it gets. If it infects you, I doubt I'll have time to save you."

_'He's not joking.'_ Shikaku carefully checked himself. He had only one shadow, and it was the expected dark, not-quite-black colour.

The amount of killer intent coming off the boy was _incredible_. It was beyond even what Shikaku imagined a Kage to have.

"Throw that meat over any of my shadows," Yasha said.

Shikaku did so. As the meat went past, in an instant, the meat was stripped to the bone.

"What…" Shikaku breathed in shock as the quiet sound of the bone hitting the ground met his ears.

He'd had never see a shadow technique that attacked like _that_.

Shadows given form was a Nara clan exclusive; maybe an extremely advanced derivative of the Shadow Stitching technique?

Shikaku hadn't heard of a single other clan that used shadows, not even minor clans, in any other country. And the 'summoning' certainly denied whatever was there was solely a shadow technique. But he did end with Rat, which was the sole seal of the Shadow Possession technique.

His hand seals suggested a mix of three styles: Nara's shadow technique, a summoning, and a non-standard seal.

Then Shikaku saw someone else arrive on the scene. Hatake Kakashi, although he was looking relaxed as normal, he wasn't holding up his normal Icha Icha book, but a kunai instead; gaze locked onto the youngster, even beginning to lift his forehead protector.

Shikaku noticed Yasha was releasing his chakra constantly around his body, beginning to sweat from the drain on his low level. _'How'd he learn something that draining without a chakra capacity to match? It's like a genin using a jounin technique. He can't hold it for long, maybe half a minute.'_

"Can I release it?" Yasha asked, trying to keep the strain out of his voice.

Shikaku nodded.

Yasha flashed his hands outwards rapidly, fingers spread on both sides, and then clamped them in a Snake seal [all fingers interlinked into one fist], grunting with effort.

Two of the three shadows began to recede, as if the invisible light casting them was getting closer to Yasha's head.

Kakashi, watching on, could see the darkness vanishing away, flooding to some point between the black-haired kid's palms. He couldn't tell where it was going – the kid's chakra was too black and indistinguishable from the black particles outside to detect if his body was absorbing it, or if the technique was being released somehow.

With the black particles' movement, the heavy killer intent and scent of death over the area receded equally.

Kakashi relaxed. With the Jounin Commander Shikaku and no civilians there, he shouldn't have been worried in the first place, but the feel of chakra was more dangerous than he remembered the _Kyuubi's_ to be. Kakashi had been quarter the way across Konoha and was certain a Bijū of some sort had been released. He had to forfeit his race with Gai to investigate, who hadn't picked up on it at all from that distance.

Most of the kid's chakra had vanished. About 80% had gone, Kakashi estimated.

"Anything else you can do as part of your bloodline?" Shikaku invited.

Yasha made another five hand seals quickly, ending on Rat again, then holding two fingers to each of his temples and shutting his eyes.

_'Like this?'_ his thoughts echoed clearly within Shikaku's head, shocking the jounin leader. _'Short-range telepathy. About eight paces away to whoever's nearby. I can do longer, but it takes more complicated preparations.'_

_'Can you receive thoughts as well?' _Shikaku thought.

_'Yes. Even if the recipient doesn't know I've connected, I can pick up most of their thoughts.'_

_'Disconnect, please, Yasha-kun,'_ Shikaku thought, not risking his analytics until he saw the boy remove his fingers from his head and open his eyes.

Shikaku then analysed, and he wasn't happy. _'This is serious. No one can lie to him, with that undetectable-entry mind-reading technique. He can predict any attack by reading his opponent's mind, and he has an extremely advanced shadow technique that just screams of death to whoever dares touch him. Even for a genin, he's not someone who can be treated lightly: he has two near-perfect defences, one of which is heavily aggressive. No wonder ANBU were tailing him. And he's attracted about fifteen ninjas from around town just from his technique's killer intent.'_

"How are your three jutsu levels?" Shikaku probed.

"Uh, not brilliant." Yasha scratched his cheek sheepishly. "For ninjutsu, I can do the Henge [Transform] and Bunshin [Clone] techniques, but nothing higher than D-Rank, except my bloodline limit ones. For genjutsu, I can't create any, just release them and detect the lower-level ones. And my taijutsu is good, but only a genin level."

That was… unexpected. As he said, besides his apparent shadow bloodline limit, he had nothing that hit genin or above level.

"And my fuuinjutsu is only storage seals, good enough to store small inanimate things." Yasha grinned self-consciously as he admitted his low abilities. "Oh, and I have one other bloodline technique."

"Oh? Can you show me?" Shikaku encouraged.

Yasha considered it for a bit. He was a bit low on chakra for it, and according to the instruction scroll, running out of chakra whilst using the bloodline limit was equivalent to committing suicide – as his own flesh could be devoured from the loss of control over the carnivorous swarms.

The remaining technique Shikaku hadn't seen was the one he had used for getting into Konoha: summon darkness, and then wrap it around yourself.

Yasha eventually shook his head. "No, I'm too low on chakra. Sorry, Shikaku-san."

_'__**Another**__ high-level bloodline technique?'_ Shikaku thought worriedly. _'This isn't good. Even if they don't last, there's no doubting their strength. If there's anyone else with his bloodline, any adult, Konoha is in danger.'_

_"_I hear you joined Shikamaru's class?"

Yasha nodded briskly. "Hai, the Hokage approved me to join the village, and put me in his class."

_'That's a lie; there's __**no way**__ Hokage-sama did,' _Shikaku contemplated grimly._ 'I would've heard about a new bloodline in the village; plus, a new bloodline invokes the Clan Restoration Act, and eventually a seat on the council. Even if he's too young for the Act to apply, it'd be at least brought up by __**someone**__. And hold on, 'the Hokage approved __**me**__ to join'?'_

"That's great. Congratulations, Yasha-kun." Shikaku forged a smile. "Welcome to Konoha."

"Thanks, Shikaku-san." Yasha grinned and scratched the back of his head again. "Good to be here."

"He only approved you to join? What about your parents?"

"Ah…" Yasha looked down morbidly. "I never met them. They left me when I was little."

His slumped stance and emotion in his tone said he wasn't lying.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Shikaku felt a small pang of conscience for his cross-analysis on an orphan. He paused for a while as Yasha nodded, mutely accepting his condolences. "Do you know anything about your bloodline?"

"Hmm…" Yasha had planned this response, which had a lie, and still found himself re-assessing it under the Nara's keen gaze. "My parents left me with a scroll saying I was part of a cursed bloodline, linked to the Nara clan, where only one person has it at once. And there's a countering bloodline that's always present somewhere if mine is, again just one person with it."

"A countering bloodline?" Shikaku replied in surprise.

"Hai. My chakra is dark, his is the opposite. We're genetically enemies of each other. But that's all I know."

All this was new to the Jounin Commander. There were a lot of unexplored bloodlines, but Shikaku hadn't heard of one that _by design_ only had one carrier active at once, let alone one that had an explicitly countering bloodline. He wasn't even sure if that was possible. "Have you met your counterpart?"

"Nope. I have no idea about him," Yasha replied almost curtly.

_'That could be a problem,'_ Shikaku reasoned. If there were no hidden agendas to Yasha, a natural counter with presumably equally powerful powers would be outside the village. "You keep saying 'him' though."

Yasha hadn't even noticed that; he'd been referring to the counter bloodline's holder as a male. "Yeah… I don't know, he could be a she. It would make sense, I guess, opposite bloodlines and opposite genders."

"Right," Shikaku mused. "I don't suppose I can see the scroll describing your bloodline?"

"Uh…" Yasha was torn. He only knew his darkness techniques from his future self's writings on the scroll, the knowledge no doubt having been passed from time-traveller Zack. Getting that revealed will lose all his defence and secrets, but it might get him more trustworthy to Shikaku. "A ninja shouldn't reveal all his secrets," he replied smartly.

Shikaku grinned at his sudden cheekiness. "Fair enough."

"Can I ask a favour of you, Shikaku-san?"

"Yes, go ahead." Shikaku could guess what it was.

"Can I receive shadow manipulation training from you?"

Shikaku's face held a no, but he stilled it to neutral as he thought it over again. Clan techniques were highly coveted secrets, but Yasha was definitely gifted with shadows, even if it was a bit of an unusual gift. Giving him training was also a troublesome task, if Shikamaru was any indication. And Yasha did say he was descended from the Nara clan – which seemed unlikely, there hadn't been any missing-nin from them, definitely none that were gifted (or motivated, for that matter). He may have just lied about it. "I'll have to discuss it with Hokage-sama."

Watching on his crystal, having quickly activated it earlier when he felt the bloodlust from the Hokage Tower, the Hokage smiled slightly. As expected of the Jounin Commander, he knew something was up, even though there shouldn't have been a way for Yasha to be in Shikamaru's class outside of the Hokage's order. The Hokage watched as Shikaku and Yasha parted ways, the crystal showing the careful investigation of the ground by Yasha as the jounin left.

"ANBU-san, tell the unit on standby they're not being deployed," the Hokage instructed the kneeling figure in front of him.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the ANBU commander said shortly, dispelling himself with a small cloud of smoke.

_'What is this Yasha really up to,'_ the Hokage wondered. _'His actions are a mixture of careful plans and panicky making it up. He didn't have a plan to get into Konoha and no fewer than three parties noticed him. He then had a plan to get close to Naruto, but blew it by announcing his presence with killer intent. He then had another plan to get in the Academy, but the seal wasn't a perfect copy, something Iruka had to verify later on. And meeting with Shisui, bizarre. And then he befriended the same person he knocked out the day before.'_

He watched, considering going back to his paperwork instead, but dismissed that option. Administration versus investigation of a new bloodline carrier, he knew what was most important.

Plus, administrative work was boring as hell.

* * *

Yasha didn't remember where the apartment was from the poster, and nearly missed the closing time for the estate agency. In all the ruckus it took him a good half an hour to figure out where the new apartment was, only to find out he hadn't got a front door key.

In total a good hour or so had passed since he went off to meet Shikaku.

Luckily, Naruto hadn't locked up. Yasha stepped in, inspecting the lit-up house and touring it.

It was as advertised, electricity clearly worked, and hot water worked too. The house was basic, waxed wooden plank floors, the walls half cream-coloured walls on top, the bottom half plain waxed wood. The main corridor split into all the rooms; on the right, the kitchen, followed by the bedroom, on the left, the living-room followed by bathroom, and at the end on the right, the bedroom.

"Hey, Naruto-kun?" Yasha called from back in the hallway.

He could hear someone walking past outside, uncertain footsteps, halting outside the front door. Yasha tensed up – he'd only been there a few minutes and already suspicious activity.

"This where the demon fox lives?" a decidedly hostile man's voice asked.

"Yeah," someone else grunted.

Yasha felt his adrenaline levels rocket up. Naruto was nowhere to be seen, and he had low levels of chakra. Multiple adults, there was potentially a serious problem now. He couldn't fight them off in his state, and he couldn't afford killing them publicly.

Still, he could probably summon enough darkness to produce KI to scare those guys, unless they were experienced ninja, in which case he was screwed anyway.

Yasha flicked off the lights in the hallway, covering himself in darkness. With all the doors closed bar one at the end of the hallway behind him, opposite the front door, he was little more than a dark silhouette. Yasha began to release his chakra slightly, feeling the killer intent increasing around him as the darkness particles that were constantly on him began to explore the dark side of the corridor.

"You guys outside," he snarled. "Get your asses away from my home or I _will rip your fucking throats out_."

Yasha flooded as much chakra as he dared, and heard a quick shuffle of footsteps outside as the three or more adults ran for it.

He'd woken up some people nearby as well, no doubt. With a release of that much unfocused KI in the middle of town, any sleeping ninja worth their salt would've bolted upright and grabbed their weapons. He hoped he wouldn't have to release chakra like that again or the ninja around here would be grumpy as hell.

Yasha still hadn't seen any traces of the blond, but he could guess where he was. He stepped back, exploring the dark kitchen and finding the front door keys along with 5k ryou cash. Yasha frowned. He'd given Naruto 50k, even with a last month's guarantee of 15k, should not have cost that much. Naruto was homeless, but there was no way he would've stolen from his only friend.

A pulse of anger came from him as he worked out what had happened, making the darkness particles spread out hungrily. The _scumbags_ had overcharged Naruto because they thought he was going to be the owner. _'Oh poor you. The Kyuubi living in one of your apartments. Gosh, how your reputation must suffer.'_

Gritting his teeth, he calmed himself as he realised the light reflecting from the wall behind him, emitting from the bedroom a few paces away, was getting dimmer. The only person who might be in the house was Naruto, and he didn't want the darkness going ape on the blond because he got a little emotional.

He carefully began to bring the particles back with Snake seal, nearly depleting his energy. They weren't particularly keen on coming back. A new environment, new targets, new meat to eat. Selfish little piranhas.

He hoped not enough particles had passed through the walls or floorboards to start killing his neighbours. They could be innocents.

After a couple of minutes, the corridor's shadows were still a little darker than before, but he'd contained as much as he could attract by moulding extra chakra.

He continued inspecting: first, the kitchen, finding a fridge (on, mould-free, empty), a couple of empty cupboards, and a washing machine. No dryer or dishwasher – but with one person in the house, he'd not need much.

He crossed the corridor and stepped into the bathroom, saving the bedroom for last._ 'Hmm, no toothbrush, something else to buy.' _The mirror was clean and bathroom equipped with a shower, toilet and basin.

Yasha leant on his fist, the width of the fist separating him from his reflection. Gazing into his own pupils, watching the subtlest movements inside them as the darkness particles converted the dim light into clear as day. The darkness particles loved his pupils; they automatically emitted less light when it got brighter outside, and the darkness particles lost their sense of direction rapidly in any level of light.

It was kind of creepy to think his eyes and hair were filled with tiny airborne parasites that could rip his body to pure bones almost as fast as he could blink. Even weirder to think he had been gathering more and more every day of his life since he'd first moulded chakra. But the instruction scroll said as much.

He had lied to Shikaku; the summon was no summon, it was just a way to flood chakra on a surface. He only needed the last three of those seals, to spread his chakra over the ground, but people naturally trimmed down the number of seals for the same technique over time, so he could lessen as he needed. In an emergency, Yasha's own emotions would distress his chakra, making the darkness uncomfortable, and they'd leave his body naturally. Any enemy better not drive him into a corner, or they'd regret it as he wouldn't even have to gesture before their body was reduced to a skeleton.

Yasha suddenly got a chilling thought. What if his birth had caused such an emotional reaction that… his own mother… _'Oh shit. Kami, I hope not.'_

But the nasty idea wouldn't leave, and Yasha could tell he'd never forget it, either. Cursing mostly at himself, he left the bathroom and crossed to the bedroom. Two small chest of drawers; a wardrobe; a single bed, no linen, and with a certain blond snoring lightly on it, something that made the black-haired boy grin. No doubt healing all the injuries had drained Naruto's energy somewhat, but there was probably another reason he was fast asleep at just gone 9pm. He looked like he had laid on Yasha's bed to relax for a bit and just dropped off to dreamland.

Yasha shrugged. He inspected Naruto's flung-out condition before concluding there was no room for him to sleep on the bed.

He experimentally lay on the wooden floor. He needed to buy a couch for the living room tomorrow. The floor wasn't particularly comfortable, but eh, he'd spent yesterday sleeping in a barn midway between his old orphanage and Konoha. No animal smells here.

As he tucked one arm under his head, Yasha began to list what he needed to buy. _'Linen, extra clothes, food, towels, pillow, ninja tools, a rug or two, plenty of ninja scrolls, maybe a TV…'_

* * *

After about half an hour of attempting to sleep, Yasha couldn't take it anymore. He gave up and shoved Naruto onto his side, lying down beside him so their backs were together.

He idly wondered if this was embarrassing. Probably. But he couldn't be arsed to move him. In fact, he couldn't be arsed to turn off the light. Summoning some chakra from pure laziness, Yasha pointed at the bulb, flicking a string of chakra at it.

The small shattering sound as the room plunged into darkness brought another thought to his mind. _'I'll need more lightbulbs, too.'_

* * *

**AN: **I'm totally jealous of Yasha. I want to turn off lights like that. It might be expensive, but the cool factor is _way _up there.

In case you folks are wondering, I doubt this story will go yaoi. Not until they're old enough to handle it, and in canon, Naruto is rather keen on Sakura at this age; switching people, much less genders, is not a likely occurrence for those burdened by a crush.

Follow this story if you like the colour of my shoes. They're cool, right? Yeah, black's the way to go.  
If I get enough followers I might even describe the Ninja Art of Ghost Walking, so you guys can try it at home.

If I'm honest, can't wait for a nice fight scene. Yasha's just too scary for the non-ninjas, and things only kick off in anime for Naruto at graduation, since that's literally episode 1; the current story is taking place a few months before 'episode 1', and a couple of weeks prior to the Uchiha's coup. I think I'll switch to Shisui's viewpoint relatively soon; it's an interesting perspective that not many authors have explored (mainly because he's DEAD).

Also, the length of time people stay at the Academy, and the ages they start, is totally all over the place. I think even Masashi Kishimoto would be confused at this stage. I heard one place say it was 4 years for Naruto, but there's no way Sasuke would've taken that long - he was considered a genius, and he was less than a year older than Naruto, yet still in his class. Confusion much.


	6. Master Sage

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 6: Master Sage**_

* * *

**AN:** Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. I write several chapter lengths in advance (I think I'm on chapter 9?) but I split it up where it seems appropriate. And then I release the chapters as I feel the timing should be. This chapter introduces another bloodline, which I haven't seen being used before in fanfiction.

greymouser, thanks for the review, but you don't have PMs open? Check your account settings.  
I'll respond publicly since I see your points; see the bottom of the page.

* * *

Naruto woke with a start in the middle of the night. He couldn't see anything, not even his own hand in front of his face. He could barely make out the white skin when he poked himself in the eye with his own finger. _'Is this a dream?'_

It was completely black around him. Like he had fallen into a pot of black paint, or the room was filled with really thick black fog. Naruto sniffed, but nothing smoky. He waved his hand in front of his face a couple more times, and with a start realised he was warm.

That wouldn't mean much to most people, but Naruto had never been _warm_ when he slept before. He was used to wearing thin pyjamas and being at a part of the orphanage building which was very drafty. _Warmth_ while sleeping was downright unusual.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked out loud. His voice sounded odd. The voice didn't bounce it back to him the way it normally did. Was he somewhere else?

Naruto remembered being kicked out the orphanage yesterday. Then what had happened?

Oh yeah, Yasha. He told him to rent an apartment, but not _sleep_ in it. Feeling pangs of guilt, Naruto moved to get off the bed and felt someone else's body fall against his as he moved away. He couldn't see him at all, and a hesitant hand to feel their face poked their eye and woke them up.

"Wass goin on?" the other boy mumbled confusedly. "Naruto?"

Naruto hung his head. _"_Sorry, Yasha, I didn't meant to sleep here. I'll go find somewhere else…"

As the blond began to get up, Yasha's hand caught his wrist.

"Don't be an ass," Yasha retorted with a suddenly firm tone. "If I wanted you out that bad I would've woken you up, dimwit. You're homeless, right? Get back to sleep, we'll work this out tomorrow."

Naruto opened his mouth to protest but couldn't come up with words. "Thanks, Yasha-kun." he concluded eventually.

"No problem, Hokage-sama." Naruto could sense his peer grinning even though he still couldn't see a centimetre away. Naruto grinned as well at the title, even given sarcastically, it brought back all the reasons why he liked the Academy.

_'Yep, this is definitely embarrassing,'_ Yasha sighed._ 'If this was some sort of cliché scene, Naruto's crush would waltz in with all her female buddies about now.'_

Thankfully, there were no entrances from their peers. Yasha was quite certain if he did get horribly embarrassed, the amount of chakra spikes he'd have would make it very dangerous to be around him. Convenient, yet horribly inconvenient knowledge at the same time. No one would dare embarrass him.

Naruto on the other hand had a sombre expression as he laid back on the bed. Since Yasha had turned up, he'd been nothing but friendly, kind and helpful – but every other kid for the whole seven or so months he'd been at the Academy had been different to Yasha.

There were those kids who tolerated him, those that disliked him, and those that ignored him, but Yasha had made friends with him on the first day, taking him out to lunch, and now giving him a bed for the night. And he was an _outsider_. He had _less_ reason to like Naruto than members of the same village… didn't he?

Naruto didn't consider himself clever, but he knew something was different between Yasha and the villagers. He'd tried earnestly to get the villagers to recognise him, but Yasha had acknowledged his claim to become Hokage right off the bat without even knowing him.

It would normally come off as shallow, but Yasha didn't seem like the type who would lie. He had gone ahead and described his own flaws openly, that wasn't something a liar would do.

And what was this slight sensation of danger he felt coming off the dark-haired boy? He had dismissed it as soon as Yasha treated him to ramen, but his instincts still twinged at him whenever Yasha was around. Naruto had also noticed whenever Yasha had crossed the shadow of something, that instinct had increased slightly. Right now, it was a mild sense of danger, like the type Naruto got when he stood next to the edge of the Hokage cliffs. But Naruto had no reason to feel scared of him.

_'I have some things to check out tomorrow,'_ Naruto decided.

* * *

In a seedy but brightly lit tavern, one of the most powerful ninjas was giggling lecherously amongst several women.

He was just describing his latest anecdote to his new womanly fans when a small toad hopped in from the hallway. Jiraiya's laughter faltered as he inspected the newcomer. Red skin, an urgent summons from Konoha. If it was green, he wouldn't be so concerned.

He still found himself idly considering ignoring the toad until the morning, to enjoy the company of the voluptuously gifted ladies, but unwillingly conceded as the toad opened its mouth and produced a scroll larger than the toad itself.

As he took the scroll, another toad hopped in the door, this one with yellow skin. One of the Toad Sages wanted to speak with him as well? Jiraiya hoped the two weren't connected, that could only mean Konoha had suffered something seriously wrong in the short time the red toad had taken to get to him.

He took the second scroll from the yellow messenger and glanced around at the somewhat mystified women. "Back in a bit, ladies." he grinned.

He strode out the private booth, smiling at the squealed protests behind him, and slid open Konoha's message. _'Unknown bloodline related to shadows, a child user snuck into Konoha and has befriended Naruto. Bloodline is highly dangerous. Your presence requested urgently.'_

Jiraiya's face paled. That did not sound good. Orochimaru's experiments would have no doubt acquired new bloodline techniques over time. And immediately befriending his godson? This was no doubt some sort of scheme.

Jiraiya decided to make his way back to Konoha immediately. Since the Great Toad wanted to see him too, he had an excuse to make use of Reverse Summoning.

He nodded at the yellow toad. "Summon me to Mount Myoboku."

As both toads vanished with a small puff of smoke, Jiraiya slapped the money on the table, but couldn't even finish his drawn-out reluctant goodbyes before the scene around him suddenly changed to the Great Sage's room.

"Hello, Jiraiya-chan." the small green elder toad with white hair greeted.

"Hello, Fukasaku-sama. What brings me here? Is it Konoha?" Jiraiya asked tensely.

The elder toad shook his head. "No."

"Another prophecy?"

"No." Shima replied.

"Well, colour me confused. What is it?"

The two elder sage toads glanced at the larger Gamamaru, whose barely-opened eyes blinked slowly. He didn't say anything for about a minute, then just as Jiraiya was going to scream something about the lovely women he had left behind, he finally spoke: "A new Sage has signed the master contract."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. He hadn't heard there _was_ such a thing as a master contract.

After a long delay, Fukasaku sighed, and continued for the larger toad lest Jiraiya lose what patience he had left. "As courtesy we're obligated to tell you the changes this will make to your summoning contract."

"There's going to be changes?" Jiraiya said, now even further perturbed.

"Yes. Put simply…"

* * *

When Jiraiya appeared on the outskirts of Konoha by a nearby well, courtesy of Fukasaku's reverse summon, he was considerably paler. The changes he had just heard of meant a battle with whoever the Master Sage was were heavily pinned against him. Sage mode wouldn't even be possible.

Despite his hurry, the new information had made him forget his original reason for being outside Konoha. He took a couple of minutes just to mull the conversation over. It was surprising, and something Fukasaku should've brought up at some point earlier, but essentially, unless he met the Master Sage in battle, his summons would work just the same. He was getting worried over nothing.

Fukasaku hadn't known what country the Master hailed from, so he could even be an ally. Jiraiya realised it was the same battle weaknesses for Tsunade, Orochimaru, the Third, hell, even Hanzo was in the same pinch. He quickly made his way to the Third's desk, chuckling at the thought of his creepier teammate being informed his authority had just been decreased.

* * *

Orochimaru was nearly dumbfounded at the _audacity_. Manda had required ten sacrifices just for informing him, even though Orochimaru could guess there was another reason. The purple snake took perverse delight in watching Orochimaru's temper rise.

For another ten, courtesy of a nearby prison, it was revealed only those capable of senjutsu, use of natural chakra, would be informed immediately. Others would be told when their summons were around.

Although the Master had no physical details, he resolved to track him down as quickly as possible. He grinned sickly as he imagined possessing _that_ body. The ability to summon and order any creature with just your knowledge of who to summon restricting you? The clause that prevented any summons battling the Master was particularly desirable.

He hoped it was an Uchiha who wielded it. A single opportunity and he'd snatch that body without a second thought.

"Kabuto!" he barked. "I want you to find this Master Sage."

"Master Sage?" Kabuto repeated in confusion. Orochimaru gave him a hard stare that made the spy squirm slightly. Still, wasn't too surprising he didn't know, Orochimaru hadn't known himself.

The Snake Sannin changed tact: "How many people do you know of who can use senjutsu?".

"Just you and Jiraiya, Orochimaru-sama. I have heard of no one else, alive at least."

"Hmm…" Orochimaru quickly explained the concept of a Master Sage to Kabuto.

Kabuto absorbed it and nodded shortly. "I'll begin investigations in Konoha, as I'm situated there for watching the Uchiha… but we still have no leads?"

"No. I can ask Manda, but there's no guarantee he's even allowed to tell anything. If only senjutsu users are even told the man exists, the information must be restricted from some." Orochimaru analysed thoughtfully.

"And our plans for Uchiha Itachi?"

"Keep them as they are. This shouldn't affect him, even in the unlikely chance he is a senjutsu user, until one of us knows who this bastard of a master is."

"Hai, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto slunk away with a smirk growing on his face.

* * *

The Third Hokage was filling in the last forms for the day, about a change in village budgeting, when he felt a chakra approach that felt very familiar.

"Jiraiya, thanks for your prompt response, although it is a bit unexpected. Why'd you get here so quickly?"

"I had two reasons for coming back here," Jiraiya divulged after hopping in through the window.

"The perky women?" the Hokage guessed.

Jiraiya paused, reconsidering. "…Okay, _three_ reasons."

The two chuckled together before the mood returned to serious.

"Alright. I'll spill what I have." The Third Hokage leant back, dismissing his ANBU guard as he opened a drawer and pulled out a photo of Yasha. "This is Yasha. He turned up two nights ago, uses a bloodline which is characterised by heavy killer intent and… flesh-consuming shadows."

Jiraiya nodded, eyes widening briefly but experience losing the rest of a response. "…You want an investigation of him?"

"He's never given a clan name, so it won't be easy, and since he's young, I'd like to avoid using more extreme measures to investigate his past."

"Why is he in the village?" Jiraiya asked bluntly. "If he hasn't got a handle on his bloodline, something that powerful should be kept far away."

The Hokage sighed. "He snuck into the village. And made a beeline for Naruto."

Jiraiya clenched up visibly. "Naruto?!"

He had forgotten that bit of his summon message. The Third could tell the Toad Sannin was inches away from a search-and-destroy on Yasha.

"Naruto's fine. Yasha actually _protected_ Naruto from one of the more… aggressive villagers. He's not here to harm him; I've been monitoring him closely."

Jiraiya sighed and wished there was a chair he could collapse into that wasn't covered in paperwork. He settled for leaning on his Sensei's desk. "And?" he prompted.

"He also gave a message to Uchiha Shisui."

Jiraiya frowned at that. The Third knew he wasn't aware of the coup and Itachi and Shisui's desire to stop it.

"Shunshin no Shisui?"

"That's the one. He gave him a scroll and ran for it."

"What were the contents?"

"I asked Shisui to tell me if he saw fit, and he didn't," the Third said simply. "From what Shisui tells me it's clear he never met Shisui or any of the Uchiha before, but he does look like one."

Jiraiya nodded, glancing at the photo again. "So I can see."

"Shisui and Shikaku both have agreed his charka appears dark… here's their reports on him."

Jiraiya took the two papers, glancing over then with a frown. "It doesn't ring any bells… the name or the bloodline. Any idea what land he's from?"

"He claims the land of Fire. And his looks aren't suggesting otherwise. He's reportedly an orphan from birth, so there's no parents to trace."

"About as hard as it gets to trace someone," Jiraiya mused thoughtfully. "You don't think… he's from Orochimaru?"

The Third winced at the mention of his wayward student. "No reason to think so, he has none of his traits or humour."

"From an enemy country, then?"

"It's certainly a weakness that can be easily exploited." The village head had a regretful tone now. "As a Jinchūriki, Naruto has been alienated by the villagers, and Yasha has befriended him almost immediately after entering the Academy. He entered by a forged letter addressed to Iruka, Naruto's class teacher. It's definite Naruto is at least one of his objectives, although the objective being his protection is very unlikely. But that's all we've seen so far."

"Hmm," Jiraiya considered. Certainly no outside village would send people to protect another village's Jinchūriki, unless they wanted to control it themselves. "And you said he released a lot of killing intent?"

"Levels even comparable to a _Bijū_, but less of a response from civilians and genin. But even civilians feel threatened – but not hated. He's released huge amounts at least four times, and woke half the village. Twice, this night. Every sensor we've asked reported that he's not doing it from a chakra pulse of some sort nor genjutsu."

"How are his knowledge and training?"

"He only has pre-genin chakra levels – although the nature of his bloodline still makes him a B-Rank – and he did well on a general exam Iruka Umino gave him. He somehow had funds to purchase a house, so someone with wealth has definitely funded him."

"I still wonder why you're keeping him around if he's coming from a questionable source with questionable motives and focused on the village's Jinchūriki," Jiraiya said dryly.

The Hokage fumbled for words. "He's not just that. The message to Shisui, I can't explain. And he willingly went to Shikaku and demonstrated his ability even though he is probably the best equipped person to see through any ruse. It's like he expects he'll be treated hostile. And that's another thing about his bloodline – every single ninja, without fail, report feeling unease from seeing him."

Jiraiya raised his eyebrow. "You still haven't answered my question though. Why is he still here?"

"He's unprofessional. He was spotted before he even made it into the village. A true infiltration from another village would have much more planning."

"That's true. But if you don't know why he's here, or who sent him, just get him into Torture &amp; Interrogation, ask some questions. Force it as much as you want. Hell, use a Yamanaka to wipe the experience if you want. You're being too easy on him and it's just a hunch that he's a good guy, but all evidence points to his being dangerous. It's not worth the risk."

The Hokage sighed. The spymaster made a good point; it seemed a bit brutal to do that to Naruto's friend, but bottom line was, Yasha had infiltrated the village. Even if his motives were good he was definitely being funded by someone outside and they needed details. "Right. I'll get T&amp;I on him tomorrow."

Jiraiya nodded triumphantly. "I appreciate he's Naruto's bud, but it's not worth the village's safety just for that."

The Hokage nodded. A moment of silence passed. "And you said you had another reason for coming back?"

"Have you heard of the new Master Sage?"

"…The _what?_"

* * *

**AN: **Response to greymouser.

First, Sasuke's 'uncharacteristically arrogant' personality. From what I can tell, Sasuke when he was small was adoring on his relatives and neighbours, but very focused on getting stronger. He's not an emo until the massacre happened, as I recall, but he's still got little time to waste on weaklings; Uchiha pride, and the pride of his father for Itachi, made a lot of impact on him.

When he's presented with Naruto (canon kiss scene), he's just miffed at why Naruto was glaring him down, and he was stoic (and you could say arrogant) even then, ignoring his fangirls completely and thinking they were annoying. Hence, no, I don't see his personality as off, although he hasn't spoken much in this story, so you don't really see the mindset difference pre-massacre and after. It's not explored much in canon either.  
As to why he's not chatty, seemingly arrogant - seating Naruto in the middle (between Yasha and Sasuke), by the unwritten rules of classroom etiquette, obligates Sasuke to talk to Naruto first, before he talks to Yasha. Naruto doesn't think highly of Sasuke (because Sakura loves Sasuke way more than Naruto), so Sasuke talking to Naruto won't go down well and will embarrass the boy with his Uchiha pride. Not talking to Naruto first would be rude to Naruto - which could be interpreted as being rude to Yasha's friend: thus that approach will not work either. If they swapped seats, things'll be much smoother for the little Uchiha.

Second, age: They're about twelve years old, same as canon - I think Sasuke is older by Naruto by a few months, but Yasha's monthly age is undetermined as yet. Note the massacre has not yet happened; it's been four years delayed, for reasons you'll see later, but the Uchiha is building back up to another attempt.

Third, speed of the story: Yasha is a rather smart kid. He knew the general whereabouts of the Nara clan's area and the Uchiha clan's area from the rough map in the instruction scroll. So the meeting wasn't coincidental, albeit fortunate.  
Yasha's aiming to get everyone who should interact with him to do so as quickly as possible - the more of an impact he has on the villagers' lives, and the more friendliness he displays to the right people, the less easy it will be to boot him out once his unapproved infiltration is discovered. He suspects it has already but has no reason to change his plans.

There's no doubt the story pace is fast, though. I write mostly action - describing scenes are hard for me, although I can describe scenes well and gradually, I don't know how to retain the pace of the story while I'm doing it. I dislike that, so it makes for a very fast-paced story, although you don't tend to notice the lack of scenery description until you look for it. :3

The pace should slow down as the high-energy of the infiltrate-everything operation dies down. At least until it hits the next main plot point (plot as seen from Yasha's perspective that is), the Uchiha coup date. Until then, there should be less of a panicky fast pace for all the characters.

But you can't beat about the bush when there's hundreds of lives at stake and you know you've screwed it up twice before. If anything, Yasha is in the biggest hurry, and since the story is centered around him, it's in a hurry too just before now. I'm making the audience feel like Yasha feels. Mwahaha.


	7. A class on suspicion

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 7: A class on suspicion**_

* * *

**AN: **Posting this one because I missed the bus to work so had a little free time. Hehe.

* * *

The bat came down again, and Naruto shrieked in pain, his voice muted. He could see the Hokage in the distance with his back turned to him. His yells weren't making any sound.

_'Turn around, jiji!'_ Naruto yelled into the darkness, but no sound came out his voice.

More carers were gathering around him, the Hokage's back receding into the darkness. He could see a black-haired boy standing alongside the carers.

_'Yasha!'_ Naruto called desperately, but the dark-haired boy only grinned evilly, raising his hand and slapping him across the cheek. The pain was surprisingly sharp.

"Wake up, you idiot, we're late," Yasha said, his voice sounding like it was in two places at once.

Naruto blearily opened his eyes, defensively diving away from Yasha and landing with a harsh bang on something flat and hard.

_'A nightmare?'_ he realised as the new bruise on his head vaporised any remaining sleepiness.

Yasha was grinning at him. "That's an interesting way to wake yourself up. Come on, we're late for the Academy."

"We are?" Naruto asked, still confused.

Yasha shortly worked out Naruto was not a morning person. It took Naruto a good five minutes before he had come to his senses, even thought Yasha had dragged him halfway to the Academy by then.

"Why did you wake up late?" Yasha asked.

"Uh, I'm normally woken up by someone else." Naruto rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and nearly fell over a rock in the street.

_'Normally woken by the carer kicking me.'_ Naruto added mentally with a grimace.

Yasha nodded smartly. "You'll have to work on that, Naruto-kun, in the field you can't depend on others to be around. You'll have to take solo missions eventually."

"I know that, dattebayo!" Naruto retorted indignantly.

"Great. You wanna come with me later when I stock up my house?"

"I guess." Naruto sighed. He wanted to train, but he didn't want to disappoint Yasha. Maybe he could talk the Uchiha lookalike into…

"I want to do training today as well," Yasha continued, startling the blond. "I've been feeling weak for quite a while now."

"That sounds great." Naruto began to wonder if the boy could read his mind.

Yasha wasn't reading his mind though; his thoughts were on how to give Naruto his summoning scroll. No doubt Naruto would want to test it straight away, and he either had to be there to warn him against using it carelessly, or far away so Naruto didn't see that he'd summoned Yasha.

_'Did Naruto even have sufficient chakra to do a space-time technique with an animate person? And why did I even have to hide the fact the scroll summoned me…? Oh yeah, the genin teams.'_

If he and Naruto were placed on different teams, Yasha still wanted to be able to help the blond, and Naruto would never drag a teammate onto a battlefield. A summoned creature was a weapon; a summoned _person_ was a friend. All the difference in the world to someone like Naruto – he'd never dream of summoning a friend to a danger zone.

Plus, it'd confuse the heck out of whatever teammates were around that he had that scroll to summon a teammate in the first place.

Yasha resolved to give Naruto the scroll if they were on different teams, and re-consider what to do later if they were on the same team. Cross that bridge when he came to it. The teams weren't going to be picked before the year end, which was after the Uchiha coup attempt. There was a long way to go then.

He felt the scroll in his jacket pocket and made a note to leave it somewhere at home next time he went out. Then his stomach growled and he remembered he had to stock up on food.

"Hold up, Naruto!" he called. "I'm gonna grab breakfast."

He ducked into a grocery store and grabbed some nasty-tasting ration bars and tastier -ut-less-nutritious breakfast bars, enough for a couple of days.

As he paid, he suddenly realised he was already used to feeding Naruto. Without thinking, he'd bought enough to last the two of them several days. And Naruto was homeless, and he'd _just bought a home_.

He facepalmed, gaining several odd looks, as he realised he had only _just_ noticed something he should've noticed _ages_ ago. It was the best part of a day he had been completely oblivious to the two near-parallel events.

And he hadn't really thought about it, but why would Naruto be booted out yesterday? Simple: the carer he had knocked out. That must have been no isolated abuse incident, the entire carer group must have ignored or partook in the beating. And the village patrols didn't notice after all this time?

No. Naruto never made too much noise, and never fought back – so as soon as he did, they booted him out. Yasha's fists were clenched painfully tight and he didn't notice the lights above him flickering as his shadow spread across the shop counter, making the assistant step back several times.

"Sir?" she asked in fear as the menacing shadow closed in on her.

The dark-haired boy looked up at her, still glaring, then his expression defused, before going into one of dismay as he took in his darkened environment. "Oh Kami, sorry, sorry."

He made several seals and began to mould more chakra, re-attracting the darkness back. That lady had been seconds away from losing her life. He had to be more careful. _Much_ more careful. If there had been someone close enough – someone behind him in the queue for the register – they would've died. The lady was inches from death herself.

One civilian death and he'd be out of Konoha forever. He flashed an apologetic smile, hurriedly paying and leaving without picking up the change.

Naruto was watching the store from outside, closely, although he couldn't see the counter from where he was. "What happened in there? It felt weird."

Yasha felt like facepalming again. He really needed to get a hand on his emotions, or on his unconscious release of the darkness. Even if the killer intent was nowhere near the level where he _consciously_ released it, and its effect lessened through walls, it was still very detectable. Yasha could see several jounin arriving. Most were looking casual, probably from experience, but a few were looking alarmed.

Yasha tossed a few of his bars to Naruto, ignoring his question. "Let's go."

As they ran the rest of the way, a certain silver-haired jounin watched closely from over the edge of an orange book.

* * *

Naruto nearly fell asleep again during class, but Yasha wasn't paying much attention to him, instead reading ahead on the textbooks.

He'd learnt long ago: if you want to appear smart, read ahead. Teachers will end up teaching it anyway so they'll still answer questions about future topics. Plus it only took about a week of intermittent casual reading to know most of a textbook.

He idly wondered if he was smart. If his new fangirls were anything to go by, he was second only to Sasuke (and a few added Shikamaru). He had defused most requests for a date saying he wasn't "cut out for loving so hard so early" – and that wording nearly tripled the size of the fangirl group, much to his amusement.

The fact Yasha steadfastly refused to compare the girls and pick one over the other also helped. He supposed he'd get tired of being harassed eventually, but he knew the Academy year ended in a few months. Having people wanting to help him could only assist, even if it did irritate.

He hadn't had a lot of studying time before he entered Konoha – he hadn't even been training as a ninja at all before the reset's rollback time. If he hadn't had the instruction scroll with his bloodline hiding technique, he wouldn't have even made it inside the village. He still took a full week of charka moulding and practice before he had set out for the two-day journey to Konoha. The partial map of the village had also provided invaluable.

He still found it odd that Sasuke seemed interested in him. The Uchiha had watched the two enter late rather closely and gave some sort of quiet groaning sound when Naruto had sat down next to him instead of Yasha. Thankfully the blond hadn't appeared to notice, but…

"Yasha-kun, can you answer this one?" a voice interrupted his thoughts.

Yasha gazed at the blackboard and racked his brains but knew the answer sheet he had memorised before the exam wasn't applicable any more. He considered using a funny retort, ensuring another after-school, but decided against it; too much shopping to do. On the other hand, not knowing the answer could get him one as well. Might as well try honest; see how that went down. "Sorry Iruka-sensei, I haven't the foggiest idea."

Iruka frowned, a bit put out by his frankness. "Fine. See me during break."

Yasha nodded shortly as Iruka moved on to another student, then the boy returned to his pondering.

He had realised that the textbooks he had were quarterly. He was behind by several books, in probably every subject, a very disheartening revelation.

Iruka could become suspicious at his lack of knowledge, particularly since the Hokage would not have permitted it late entry for someone anywhere short of genius. He had to study, hard, probably for the remainder of the year, just to catch up. He wondered if it was even doable – the courses were taught for a full year for a reason.

And he wanted to be a strong ninja? Get serious. At this rate he'd be lucky to be average. Yasha wondered if he could even put in that much effort.

He could – _maybe_ – break the secret that he was really an idiot to Naruto, but he had overheard some murmurings amongst his fangirls wondering why he sat next to 'dead-last', so he doubted Naruto would be able to help much at all with that new fact about his friend – certainly since he had no parents or clan to help train him. It was surprising how much you could hear when you were quiet near a group.

_'Damn. I have to train Naruto, as well. It was only fair, we live together with the same dream – protect Konoha. How can I train Naruto whilst studying my own eyeballs out?'_

His future self has said that Naruto managed to become strong later, without Yasha having been there, but that would be just negligence, and Yasha couldn't ignore his friend's lacks like that.

Yasha had thought that the Jinchūriki was out of the path of most of his abusers, from being put out the orphanage – but just yesterday, Naruto had not been in a new home for a few _hours_ before more had shown up with decidedly hostile intent. It made Yasha worried; with their house unsafe, where could Naruto run to if those people appeared in the street?

He sighed, covering his eyes with his palms. There was so much to think about, and no real free time. Forget the Uchiha coup; Danzō's potential own coup with Root; Orochimaru's invasion (_'when had that happened again?'_ his mind was whirling too fast); Gaara's lack of friends; forget the Hokage's potential discovery of Yasha's infiltration. How was _Yasha himself_ going to make it through the year?

And if he got stressed too much, he'd leak flesh-munching particles everywhere. Oh joy. Maybe he just needed to time his stress-out so he was next to Orochimaru when it happened.

He smirked at himself. Naruto gave him a sideways look, before looking down at his textbook.

Yasha glanced down at Naruto's paper before looking confused. Half the symbols he'd written weren't even intelligible. It was like fake Japanese. Either he sucked at handwriting, or the carers hadn't… taught… him… how to read… properly…

"Shit!" Yasha snapped, facepalming quite violently.

* * *

Shikamaru had noticed his father's tense expression when he came home late last night. He was no better during breakfast this day after – a small frown of thoughtfulness stayed on his face during the whole meal.

The boy hadn't needed much deduction to realise his father was worried, and whatever it was, it was no ordinary concern. He had eventually concluded it was most likely to do with the intriguing Yasha, but hadn't overheard any of his father's conversation with Yasha last evening, but he did know he had uncommonly aroused Shikaku's interest on sight.

His father was the commander of the jounin, so it was possible it wasn't the boy at all, but Shikamaru did wonder why his own mind had felt the boy was dangerous on sight. Normally making conclusions on sight was something he didn't do.

He had resolved to make an effort to uncover the reasoning, and talk to him before class, but Yasha was late by a few minutes. Troublesome guy. He'd attempt to talk to him during break, then – asking about his father's meeting would be a good start.

* * *

Iruka was keeping half an eye on the two since they entered, remembering they were both orphans, as the Hokage had firmly pointed out to him a while ago. The chuunin had also not missed Sasuke's desire to talk with Yasha. It was no secret the two dark-haired boys were the centre of the girls' attention.

Sasuke was decidedly one of the more reserved members of the class, and easily top, since he had joined he had been at the top. Sakura's intelligence put her next to him in scores, but her physique was rather poor, so there was little surprise the Uchiha wasn't interested in getting close to her, not that with all her smarts had she ever noticed that reasoning.

And since everyone else on the class didn't match up to Sasuke either, he had elected to ignore his classmates for the most part, studying and practicing hard by himself. He was courteous to his classmates, and was no brooder, although he was quiet.

It was obvious to Iruka that Itachi was the motivation factor – and worse, at Sasuke's age (twelve), Itachi had already graduated, been promoted to chuunin, and even entered ANBU; and so in an obvious way the younger sibling was already far behind, even though he was set to graduate the Ninja Academy a year after he entered, same as Itachi.

Now Yasha was here, late introduction suggesting high intellect, and that twinge of warning everyone felt upon seeing him, Sasuke was onto him like a shot. Anything to get closer to his brother. For both their sakes, Iruka hoped Yasha was decent enough to retain Sasuke's interest; someone rivalling him for top of the class would bring him out of his clan's arrogance.

From what Iruka knew about Itachi, he wouldn't have had much free time for his brother, but knew the two were close anyway. No doubt Itachi encouraged Sasuke to catch up, but never made him feel inadequate.

As Naruto jumped back to sitting up straight, having nodded off to dreamland again, his teacher's thoughts turned to him. Iruka was fairly certain Naruto needed to spend more time in the books, but to all Iruka's prompting and not-so-subtle hints, he had not done so. Iruka was fairly confident about Naruto's physical ability, but his charka control and general intelligence was rather lacking, even if his chakra levels made Iruka's look pitiful.

He had failed two mock graduation exams before. It was looking like only way he could graduate was the Third's recommendation, rather unlikely. Iruka was out of ideas; whenever he confronted Naruto about his lack of intellectual knowledge, Naruto would protest and say he was trying his hardest, and wouldn't be able to tell Iruka what he was finding difficult. The blond just got embarrassed and quiet.

Maybe it was a good idea to have a talk with Yasha to ask him to try and move Naruto along, once he confirmed the brunette had befriended him for good. Yasha's effort appeared to be lacking as well, though, but his score on the test was very good, enough to benefit Naruto, certainly. At least he could motivate the boy, he was smart enough and had enough sway over Naruto to know how to do that, surely.

* * *

Meanwhile, a certain pink-haired girl was torn between the two black-haired boys, both of whom were sat behind her.

Ino made it very certain she was still only keen on the indifferent Sasuke, but Sakura couldn't help but notice that Sasuke would barely give her the time of day, and spoke in grunts and sighs whenever possible.

Yasha by comparison had even _grinned_ at her charmingly _on his first day_ as he went to his seat just behind her. And his looks were only vaguely softer than that of the Uchiha, so it really just left the difference of attitude. A cheerful, dangerous-feeling boyfriend, or one that she knew was an excellent shinobi? Which to go for?

Forthcoming or aloof? Her heart was very confused.

* * *

Yasha had no idea nearly a quarter of the class wanted to meet with him during break. Busily reading about the many shapes of kunai in his textbook, a lesson probably already taught, he took a bite of a ration bar and his eyes widened in shock.

It was like someone rolled random spices together with bad wheat, added vanilla, then baked it until it petrified into half-burnt bars. It took nearly all his willpower not to spit the mouthful back out (_'this was good money! Your income is zero!'_). He chewed rapidly, feeling the gross mashup upset more and more taste buds, before he swallowed and felt his thankfully-taste-oblivious stomach dissolve it from mushy awfulness into nutrition. The aftertaste remained as a mostly tasteless dry sensation, but he could feel it was powering him before a minute had passed.

He looked down at the two thirds of the bar left with a grimace and decided to try tiny nibbles instead. It wasn't much better, but his taste buds were too overwhelmed to protest any more.

Yasha needed a drink, but hadn't bought any, so he knew he had to wait until break.

Half an hour later, he got a better idea. Making seals, he grinned, holding two fingers to his temples and closing his eyes.

_'Sakura-chan…'_ he sent to the pink-haired girl in a soothing tone. He could hear her sitting up sharply in front of him, elbows rubbing across the desk with the movement. _'Do you have any water? Poor Yasha-chan looks parched.'_

Quickly, he disconnected, looking as nonchalant as possible as she spun around to glare at Ino, for some reason. Her gaze drifted down to him and she had a questioning look.

Yasha rubbed his hand across his forehead as if wiping away sweat and gave her a lopsided grin. She looked briefly shocked and flushed a fierce red, but he pretended not to notice, looking away at the whiteboard Iruka was scribbling on.

_'Hook, line, and sinker. You evil bastard,'_ he half-chided himself, but his stifled chuckling gave his lack of remorse away. Playing with girls' emotions was fun, even if it was also immoral.

His humour waned as he realised she hasn't risen to the bait. He waited for a few minutes, but realised she must've wimped out. Hmm. He knew he had a fangirl behind him, Ino, but wasn't sure if doing it right in front of her was a good idea.

He didn't know anything about her clan, he had forgotten what the instruction scroll said about it. Although he had heard it during registration, the Yamanaka. She was the fiercest competitor of Sakura, so it would be funny to go to her next.

He looked to his left, the only other choice beside Naruto, who he knew hadn't bought any drinks. It was the white-eyed girl he had catalogued as creepy yesterday. _'Might as well give it a shot. See if she was as creepy in her head as elsewhere.'_

Making the seals again, he resumed his normal telepath pose. Then he realised he didn't know her name. Her last name was Hyuuga, but what was her first?

A quick confirmation with Naruto led to: "Hinata. She's a bit weird, she goes red a lot."

Yasha raised his eyebrows at that particular revelation. If the mostly oblivious Naruto noticed it, she must do it a _lot_. He waited until Naruto started to fall asleep in the sun again before he connected to her. _'Hinata-chan…'_

He heard a muffled 'eep' from her, making him grin, and could almost feel her looking around rapidly. _'Ino?' _she asked in confusion.

_'Ino again? Why does everyone think it's Ino?' _Yasha wondered, sending that to her as well. When he made a weak connection, he had to focus to send the thoughts. He could do a strong one with different hand seals, and any thought and imagination was sent.

_'She's a Yamanaka. They read minds and send thoughts,' _Hinata thought simply. _'Is-is this Yasha?'_

Yasha frowned. She was quick. And he shouldn't have forgotten about that sort of clan ability; downright stupid to do that. _'Why do you say that?'_

_'You're the only new person, who wouldn't know what the Yamanaka clan does, an-and you look… odd right now,'_ Hinata replied.

_'Alright, yes, it's Yasha. I'm thirsty, do you have any water I can have Hinata-chan?_

_'Um, ye-yes…'_

_'It's weird you stutter in your thoughts,'_ Yasha probed as he heard her rummaging for it in her bag.

_'H-hai,'_ she acknowledged. _'Ma-maybe it's because it's li-like I'm talking, not th-thinking.'_

_'Oh, so normally your thoughts don't have stutters?'_

_'N-no. Ano… you're being ca-called, Yasha-kun.'_

Yasha disconnected abruptly and looked at Iruka in a resigned fashion. He wasn't paying attention to his sensei at all. "Yasha, did you hear me?" Iruka had a vein bulging on his forehead. That probably wasn't healthy.

"Sorry, Iruka-sensei, my mind was somewhere else." Yasha sighed.

Iruka gave him a _look_. "Want to share it with the class?" he asked dryly.

An opportunity to take control of the conversation? Yasha instantly got onto it. "I was thinking I needed to hit the books harder. I haven't been able to follow you for a bit. I was going to bring it up during break."

Iruka looked completely stunned for a few seconds, and Yasha noticed most of the class did as well, including both Sasuke and Naruto.

_'It's something an adult would say,'_ most of them thought. Yasha thought he saw most of the girls' eyes morph into hearts briefly and he resisted the urge to smile. Instead he raised his hand to Iruka. "Sorry, Sensei. Please continue."

He put a look of regret on his face and hoped Iruka wouldn't make any more of it.

Watching his teacher closely, he saw Iruka hesitate for a second, then his keen observation saw Iruka's own eyes drift sideways to look at Naruto beside him, and the teacher nodded and moved on.

Looking at the two boys sat next to him, Yasha instantly realised why. Both were gazing at him looking shell-shocked and awed – as much as the stoic Uchiha could show with just his widened eyes, anyway. Sasuke gave a 'humph' and turned away quickly, but Naruto stayed staring at him open-mouthed like Yasha had switched his gender.

* * *

Iruka, meanwhile, was now certain the Hokage had made the right decision. Yasha had demonstrated maturity far beyond the current year group, and had reverted his negative impression totally in a matter of sentences. And it wasn't the first time he did that.

More importantly, Naruto and Kiba both now looked inspired, albeit for different reasons. Two dead-lasts motivated, two more to go. Although Iruka doubted a member of the notoriously lazy Nara clan could be motivated by anything short of a miracle. Chouji rarely did anything unless Shikamaru did too.

_'Yasha, you're an interesting kid. Two days and good impression on both fronts.'_ It was almost like he was brilliant at manipulating people.

Iruka froze as he reconsidered that dark thought, his hand halting on the whiteboard. No, it was _exactly_ like Yasha knew what he was doing. He was working everyone in the class the way he wanted. The girls were falling for him, and the boys respected him, even Kiba who had been insulted was still on good terms. That combo was hard to achieve with fluctuating emotions of pre-teens.

It was the most casual group manipulation Iruka had ever seen, now that he thought about it. He'd even taken his teacher's mindset and twisted his way out of a punishment.

Did he trick the Hokage into accepting him too? This level of mental puppetry was unexpectedly advanced. Although Iruka had more faith in the Hokage than that, something really felt wrong about Yasha, and felt more wrong the more Iruka thought about him.

And he was now the closest friend of the village's most powerful weapon. A bead of sweat drifted down Iruka's face. Yasha, by befriending Naruto, had not only gained control over the Bijū's container, but to take Yasha away would devastate the naïve blond. The Kyuubi's seal could _release_ with trauma like that. So Yasha had secured his place in the village as well.

And that had been done during his _first day_. On the same day, the headstrong and aggressive Kiba had already been manipulated out of his anger, which was a notable feat now Iruka actually considered it. It was obvious Sasuke was intrigued by Yasha as well, and he'd managed to make the apathetic boy chuckle on his first day, as well. An Uchiha under his command was no mean achievement either.

That made two personalities he'd inversed from their strongest traits. Three if Iruka counted himself.

He was the only classmate Naruto and Sasuke would look up to, and Iruka knew there was something _definitely_ wrong about it. His instincts had _slightly_ flickered on first sight of Yasha at kunai practice, but now it was all he could do to not run out to see the Hokage in the middle of class. He was suddenly unsure about what to use the upcoming break for – lecturing Yasha, or seeing the Hokage?

No, he couldn't let on something was wrong. Any kid would know teachers' punishments were never called off. It was a half-hour break, so the meeting with the Hokage would be five minutes or so.

Iruka didn't know any clone techniques. He wished he did now, again. The more he thought about Yasha the more alarming the boy appeared.

There was… forty minutes until break. Iruka decided to stick with the lesson as another bead ran down his face.

He turned around, having finished writing the question, and looked around for someone to ask, but mostly for an excuse to look at Yasha. The new boy was accepting a drink from… _Hinata Hyuuga?! A member of __**that**__ noble clan?!_

And she was shy and sensitive, ripe for his influence, and Iruka hadn't even seen Yasha ask her. Iruka didn't allow talking in his class and not a whisper or hand gesture had been made between the two. His chakra sonar, allowing him to see the entire classroom to some detail, had been pulsing as he was writing, and picked up nothing.

The chuunin froze up again, briefly aware his eyes were widened and his sweating was getting worse.

Yasha looked over at Iruka as he passed the bottle back with a thankful grin to his classmate, and time seemed to slow as Iruka's adrenaline-pumped system maxed out its perceptivity.

The boy's expression cycled – surprise, fear, confusion, concern, and finally confidence. He gave the teacher a small grin, but there was no malice in it. Just a regular boyish disarming smile. The 'did I do something wrong? Please don't punish me, sensei.' type of smile.

_'But what is this screaming instinct?!'_

As Iruka stared harder at him, Yasha frowned, looking back at him, concern now on the boy's face. The class had grown quiet as the tension and silence was quite obvious. Most were turning to look where Iruka was looking, trying to spot why Yasha was getting that glare.

Yasha looked both normal and incredibly conniving to the chuunin at once. His instincts were contrasting with what he saw.

"You alright Iruka-sensei?" Iruka jerked as the object of his concern spoke.

"I'm watching you, Yasha-kun." he warned vaguely.

Yasha's frown deepened, sensing Iruka's fixation wasn't to do with his drinking water. "I can see that, Sensei."

Most of the class was now watching intently. Even Shikamaru had uncharacteristically sat up and was watching the two acutely.

Iruka shrugged, giving up on the lesson plan. His nerves were too rattled to ignore this potential threat. "On that note, I'm going to call break early. Be back at…"

* * *

**AN:** There is no AN. Wait…


	8. Driven into a corner

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 8: Driven into a corner**_

* * *

**AN:** Yasha's story summed up thus far:

Night 1: Invaded Konoha, put Academy scroll in place, saved Naruto from abuser.  
Day 2: Went to Academy, befriended Naruto, delivered Shisui's message, asked a Nara about training, rented a house.  
Day 3: Went to Academy, gathered teaching material, integrated with class - still in progress _(and getting a hiccup!)_

Yasha's good at what he does: hiding in the shadows. Unfortunately, his chakra causes wariness in people - and not just that, the more you think about why you feel upset, the more upset you become. If people start getting suspicious thoughts, that suspicion goes from a wandering question to outright distrust within minutes.

Not something you want when you want to blend in.

Enjoy the chapter, folks.

* * *

Yasha had no idea why Iruka had been glaring at him like he was covered with explosive notes. It was unnerving – almost like in that moment, his entire plan was being figured out. Yasha was beginning to become wary of the more experienced ninja.

_'Fortunately,'_ he grimly thought, _'I have to talk with Iruka anyway at break. Hopefully that meeting will give away the reason for his sudden suspicion.'_

Iruka was also grimly looking forward to their chat. He had no doubts about Yasha's capability, but that left a big question about his loyalty. _'How much of my thoughts are just paranoia? Why do my instincts warn me so much?'_

As the class filed rapidly out, with many hushed whispers about the event, Naruto nodded at Yasha, saying quietly, "I'll wait outside for you."

Iruka nearly _flinched_. To Yasha's eyes he tightened up noticeably, and the boy's heart sank. He knew, _something_, at least.

"Thanks, Naruto-kun," Yasha replied tersely.

The class finished emptying and the two stared at each other, Yasha beginning to squirm under the adult's heavy gaze.

"So Yasha-kun, you wanted to talk?" Iruka asked, letting him take the lead once he was sure the boy was uncomfortable.

"Yes," Yasha said almost distantly, bringing himself back. He looked at Iruka with a small grin. "I've realised most of my ninja knowledge is inconsistent, I was probably trained under a different curriculum than this class."

Iruka knew that was impossible; any _official_ ninja training within the Land of Fire would be equivalent to Konoha's training. '_So he's had unofficial training? In which case, how did he get such a high score on yesterday's exam? And why would the Hokage let him in late?'_

"I noticed Naruto-kun struggling too…" Yasha was hoping he'd be encouraged to train Naruto from the basics. It would give him an excuse to get the basics textbooks himself, which he sorely needed. He could do high level bloodline techniques, but those were useless unless he wanted to kill everyone around him violently whilst scaring off his friends.

Using Naruto, someone already known as a dead-last, as an excuse to get the previous textbooks, was perfect for his scenario.

Iruka meanwhile immediately realised that either Yasha was genuinely concerned about Naruto's progress, _or_ his own unofficial curriculum was completely awful. Or possibly both.

Iruka had no way to know, and that was the entire reason he was jumpy. Yasha could be one of the greatest assets Konoha ever had, or he could be one of the biggest threats. But right now he was simultaneously both. What was undeniable was his intelligence and his firm hold on Naruto and Sasuke, whether he was conscious of how malleable they were or not.

"Why are you concerned with Naruto?" Iruka probed. _'Is it just a cover for yourself?'_

"We're friends," Yasha said simply enough, "and he's been through hell from _someone_ and I want to protect him…" his dark eyes narrowed at Iruka warningly, "…whoever that _someone_ is."

Iruka was again conflicted. On the one hand, he could hear the concern was genuine. But on the other, just Yasha's warning glare made his danger instincts triple.

"Why do the villagers hate him?" Yasha asked bluntly, his glare remaining but not intensifying.

Iruka swallowed but tried to look puzzled. "I'm not sure what you mean, Yasha-kun."

_"Oh?"_ Yasha dragged out the sound in an mocking way. 'I know you're lying,' his tone said in a very unsubtle way.

"You can always ask the Hokage of matters concerning the village," Iruka offered.

A glimmer of fear crossed Yasha's face, something that worried Iruka._ 'He doesn't want to see the Hokage. But that was the Hokage's seal on his approval letter – I went to the Hokage myself and he confirmed it. Something is going on.'_

"Regardless, you said Naruto is struggling?" Iruka changed tact.

"Hai." Yasha nodded shortly, his glare lessening. "He's struggling to write and read; wherever he learnt to do that he didn't learn very well. It hasn't gotten to a usable state over the Academy year so I can only conclude he's not understood most of the classes."

"_Most_ of the classes…?" Iruka echoed in shock, temporarily forgetting about his mistrust for Yasha. Then he got an idea, an easy way to test how serious Yasha was. "Are you saying he's struggling so hard because he hadn't had the prerequisites for entering the Academy?"

"Um… hai." Yasha realised his mistake. If Naruto was booted out the Academy pre-graduation… because of Yasha's pointing out of his flaws… he'd screw up Naruto's future, he wouldn't become a strong ninja, and who knew how much Naruto would suffer?

Iruka watched Yasha closely as he baited him. "In that case, I'll talk with the Hokage and get him removed from the Academy and placed in a remedial class instead."

Yasha's face went immediately _vicious_, a fierce glare appearing and just as quickly being suppressed. His response was light-hearted, very clearly forced to be so. "No, that won't be necessary."

"I think it will be," Iruka persisted, grateful Yasha seemed to not be capable of hiding his emotions accurately. It was an open book to the experienced teacher. "If what you're saying is true, keeping him here until the final exam will just make him miserable. As painful as it may be, he has to be taken out of the class."

"NO!" Yasha snapped, standing upwards, his body releasing wisps of black smoke and his killing intent was an_ overpowering_ level. "He _has_ to pass! If you drop him…" his voice faded and his glare drifted away, the 'smoke' receding to barely visible levels. "…he'll lose _everything_."

"What do you suggest, then?" Iruka tried to ignore the killing intent but found it nigh impossible to keep the tremor out of his voice. A KI that strong in a pre-genin was unheard of. It lacked the hatred and purpose of the Kyuubi's but was packed with just as much pressure and _'run a predator is here'_ threat. He was no match for it. If Iruka hadn't been sitting already he probably would've collapsed from his knees shaking so much.

Just as quickly as it had flattened him, the pressure receded into nothingness.

"I'll teach him. Whatever he needs to learn. He can manage in four months, easy." His tone was surprisingly confident and determined.

"I'm not sure Naruto…" Iruka began, half-serious with his doubt. In all honesty, as a fellow orphan, he felt for the boy. And there was no doubting Naruto's ambition and persistence – but his intelligence was questionable. Forcibly learning academics wasn't possible; you can't force your mind to take in extra knowledge, like you would force your body to work through extra exercise. It just wasn't possible.

Yasha remained just as certain. "Oh, he can. Definitely. He won't back down from being a Hokage and he'll do whatever it takes. All it takes is the right _push_ to make him serious, and he won't fail."

The same confidence. _'In his own teaching ability, or in his classmate?'_ Iruka knew, now the contrast had been increased so much, he had to make a choice between trusting the boy and trusting his instincts.

* * *

Naruto waited impatiently outside. Iruka must be getting serious. He'd never felt so much pure _rage_ before. Even though outside the classroom, with a wall dividing them, the effect was less, he couldn't imagine what had caused that. What was Yasha doing to make Iruka respond like that?

It was like Iruka wanted to _kill_ Yasha. Upon thinking that, Naruto's heart froze and in sudden horror he quickly spun and watched through the small window in the door, but could only see the two were still separated through the frosted glass. Iruka wasn't attacking, at least. Naruto didn't think Iruka-sensei would do that, but he'd not expected that sort of anger level from him either.

He couldn't make out what they were saying, but the pressure and anger with it had vanished. They were back to normal speaking tones, and then they hushed even further.

"Naruto!" he heard Iruka call.

"Hai?" he asked, entering quickly. Then he noticed they both had very sombre expressions as they looked at him.

"I'm going to tell you…" Iruka knew this would crush him. He had a couple of times seen Naruto's dark expression before he crossed the line into the Academy grounds, and knew how much this meant to him. He was already wondering if Yasha's suggestion was something he could carry out. "You're no longer a student of the Academy."

Naruto's mouth dropped open. "Wha-what?" he stammered.

"I've just seen your exercise book." Iruka rapped the book in his hand forcibly. "You're not even adequate at writing and reading; there's been barely any exercises completed properly. You're not eligible to be a ninja if you can't keep up with the class. The school can't bear with your lack of progress any more."

The colour drained from Naruto's face as he heard Iruka speak. Yasha watched silently, wondering when to break it off. For some reason, Iruka had agreed with Yasha it was his call when to break off the 'motivation'.

"No…" Naruto's pale face briefly tried to smile at what had to be a joke as he denied it. Then he looked downwards, hiding his face from the two. "No way…" his quiet voice trailed off.

Iruka had been talked into this act by Yasha, but was regretting it now. He knew Naruto would take it hard, but _this_ hard… was a bit too far off Iruka's morals.

Yasha took the lead, seeing Iruka begin to weaken. "He's right, Naruto-kun. Your exercise book shows an almost total lack of understanding. It's totally useless to be able to fight if you can't read a message about _who_ to fight."

Naruto was silently shaking, but Yasha shot Iruka a look to persist. They had to drive the point home as firmly as possible, so that they never had to do it again.

Yasha could feel something happening to Naruto and his eyes widened. Darkness was gathering in Naruto's shadow. Those tiny parasites were excited by anger and grief – it held the promise of revenge, revenge bought death, and dead bodies meant _meat_. He must have _overwhelming_ levels… maybe the Kyuubi was emphasising it…?

"Without progressing properly, you'll flunk the final exam by a huge margin, and every year after that do the exact same," Iruka continued.

Naruto's near-silent, mechanical repeating of _'no…'_ was heart-rendering.

Yasha summoned extra chakra and made several seals, performing a strong mental connection. He was dimly aware his head had fell onto the desk like he had fallen asleep as his consciousness switch bodies.

Naruto's thoughts were completely self-destructive. He was fervently denying what he had just heard and some part of him – some really _dark_ voice – was rubbing it in further.

_'No. Yasha, Iruka, don't do this. You were the only two I liked…'_

**_'You will never be a ninja. You're a demon. You'll accomplish nothing.'_**

_'No… I can try harder! I can do better!'_

**_'Should've thought about that earlier. It's too late now. You'll go back to the orphanage where you belong.'_**

_'No! There's got to be another way! I can try…'_

**_'It's too late. You should just die.'_**

_'But…'_

**_'Demon.'_**

_'I…'_

And the sadistic part of his brain – was that the Kyuubi? – won as the happier and enthusiastic voice was brutally crushed.

Yasha disconnected. He was somewhat shocked. That dark part of Naruto was even more vicious than Yasha felt comfortable being. At any rate, _now_ was the point they had to stop. Any further self-caused emotional damage and Naruto would lose all aspects of his happier personality.

Yasha nodded at Iruka sharply, and gestured as well to make sure he got the hint.

_"Unless…"_ Iruka began, snapping Naruto's tear-streaked face back up, "you step up the pace properly and pass the final exam, you can consider yourself out of being a ninja, certainly not for a couple of years at least."

"I will! I'll do anything!" Naruto swore hastily, a clear note of desperation in his voice.

"I decided for you," Yasha said bluntly.

Naruto looked at him with shocked confusion, trying to work out what his friend was doing through blurred vision. Yasha stood up slowly and strode closer to him. "I told him if he fails you, I'll drop out as well."

Iruka frowned inwardly. He realised he was now the bad guy. Yasha had changed the script somewhat, and started alienating Iruka's own desire for Naruto to succeed in order to provide a better relationship between himself and Naruto.

"Wh-why?" Naruto sobbed.

Yasha clapped his hands on Naruto's shoulders. "Because you're my friend."

Most people would persist. Most people would think there was more to the reason. But Yasha was willing to bet Naruto was not one of them.

Iruka meanwhile was realising this was a scene Naruto would remember for the rest of his life. "It's not my decision to chuck you out. And I wasn't going to do it out of… dislike for you…" Iruka hastily tried to close the distance to Naruto. "It's just there's too much work for you to do alone."

"He's right. You're going to have to redo the whole year in less than four months. Iruka doesn't have time to teach you it, and you can't do it during class anyway. So it would be a job for your parents."

Yasha nodded as Naruto's head slumped again. "But we both know you're an orphan. So I decided: two things."

Naruto was silently shuddering now, tears dripping down his cheeks. "First, I'm going to teach you. And second, you're living with me until you make it to genin." Yasha wrapped the blond in a hug he couldn't wait to give any more. "Hokage-sama," he said, his face creasing into a smile.

Naruto returned his embrace so tightly Yasha could feel every tremor. His arms were nearly crushing Yasha's ribs.

Iruka watched with tears forming in his own eyes as the blond wept his heart out over Yasha's shoulder. He hadn't known Yasha was going to offer to _live_ with him, but he was certain that now the black-haired boy had a _completely_ unshakable grip on the blond thanks to their act.

Although it was only half an act, really; Naruto really _would_ have failed the exam in his current state. No question about it; it'd take nothing short of a miracle.

Did Yasha actually know about the Kyuubi? Would he have refused to live with Naruto if he knew the boy carried one of the biggest natural horrors in history?

Iruka used his sonar pulse and realised Yasha's grin had faded and he looked grave, but there wasn't any trace of a tear. Iruka still wasn't sure of Yasha's loyalty, but he had made a choice to trust him, and now there was literally no way to go back.

"Naruto-kun," he said slowly, starting to end the emotion trip. Naruto opened his eyes to look at his teacher, before stepping out of the hug and roughly wiping his tears away.

"I want you to succeed. I think you'll have what it takes as a ninja. But you have to be _serious_ about it."

Naruto nodded hurriedly. "Absolutely. I'll make it. I swear on my life, dattebayo."

"That means no pranking in class any more." Yasha said dryly.

Naruto scowled. How would Yasha know? "I don't prank, dattebayo!"

Yasha shared a look with Iruka and the two chuckled, Naruto soon joining them, his tension fading swiftly.

_'And just like that,'_ Yasha observed, _'Naruto has gone from dead-last to prodigy.'_

"Right," the teacher announced. "I'll get the textbooks from earlier from the year. Yasha, if he doesn't make it, you'll get booted out even if you beat Sasuke on the final exam."

"I've got it." Yasha nodded zealously. "Don't worry, he'll make it!"

Naruto looked back at his classmate with surprise at his assured tone. _'Yasha trusts me. Even Iruka-sensei is behind me.'_

"Right. I'll keep this talk from the other teachers, make sure you guys stay in the Academy." Iruka improved his standing a bit more – it was a lie, there was no reason to think the teachers would catch on and they wouldn't interfere with Iruka's group anyway. "But come final exam, I won't go easy on you two. We can't have weak ninja."

"Hai!" both boys agreed simultaneously.

"And Yasha…" Iruka strode close and leant towards Yasha's ear, whispering, "I know what you're hiding, so I expect you to do better with him now you have the textbooks _you_ need."

Yasha's astonished and guilty look confirmed Iruka's bluff: the brunette didn't know the basics.

"Get lost, you two." Iruka waved them away gruffly, before heading outside himself by a staff exit, roof-hopping at a rapid pace.

He needed to chat with the Hokage before the class's (extended) break ran out. The topic of Yasha still had too many questions, particularly his reluctance to see the Hokage, and at the very least Iruka wanted to get him firmly on the Hokage's radar. Not that the ANBU team that had appeared and was following him didn't suggest he was already.

* * *

Kakashi was not surprised to find the source of the KI half the town had felt was the same boy as yesterday. He was gaining fame for it among the jounin and chuunin, of which the majority had felt his KI at least once. Luckily, the citizens and most of the genin seemed to not pick up on it completely, or Yasha would have probably been imprisoned by now for public disturbance. They got twitchy, but hadn't panicked.

Kakashi's theory was the hatred was missing from the KI, and in Kyuubi's it had been full force. The threat was apparent but the lack of malice probably lead the villagers to dismissing it after it passed; there was plenty of high-level ninja around who could be sparring.

A full four-man squad of ANBU had responded to investigate (standard procedure for possible danger in the school) but they had reported nothing other than Iruka waving them off. As Iruka had immediately headed to the Hokage tower, they simply accompanied him there for an explanation.

Kakashi had been close 'by chance' and had for a horrified moment thought it was the Kyuubi's seal releasing. Having watched what he could of the conversation, he was confused as to what Iruka was doing. He wasn't the type for psychological exploitation.

He made his way to the Hokage tower, leaning on the roof outside the Hokage's office. Hopefully the Hokage wouldn't make it a private conversation.

* * *

"Iruka-sensei, what brings you here during break?" the Hokage asked, already knowing.

"Yasha does," was the simple response.

The Hokage gestured to continue. T&amp;I still hadn't been handed Yasha – they were going to do it this evening.

"He's uh…" Iruka wondered what to say first. "He's invited Naruto to live with him."

The Third's pipe dropped out of his mouth and he hastily caught it in mid-air. That was _incredibly_ bold. "Tell me all about it."

As Iruka did so, he was aware the Hokage was growing more and more concerned. Naruto permanently with Yasha – that was a move to make them inseparable, and that 'motivation' conversation made it all the more firm.

Kakashi was also shocked. A boy who gave off enough KI to wake up half the town had not only befriended the Kyuubi's Jinchūriki, but offered to let him _live with him?_

"You supported him, Iruka?" the Hokage eventually asked.

"I did," Iruka hesitated. "I have to say every time I see Yasha, I feel like I'm being split in two. He has a contrast of being very intelligent, yet childish. Being friendly yet dangerous. I couldn't work out whether to trust him or my instincts."

The Hokage understood that. "And now you've picked one, do you feel secure about it? Completely?"

Iruka hesitated again. "No. He definitely means well for Naruto, but _why_ is something I don't know."

"I'm aware." The Hokage stood up, giving a side-glance at Kakashi who was just within sight. Might as well let him hear it if the Hokage ANBU guard were. "I've been investigating his reasoning and origin. We've got nothing from outside, so we're just going to have to ask him."

The way the Third said 'ask' with a mixture of sadness and determination left little doubt in Iruka's mind. "Interrogation for a twelve-year-old?" Iruka breathed.

"He _is_ from outside the village," The Third reminded him. "Even if he's a citizen of Konoha…"

_'…even though it's by a forged order I went along with just to see more of his plan…'_

"… I can't allow question marks about motivation when it comes to Naruto, and it's not just because he houses the Kyuubi."

Iruka nodded. That did make sense. "I came to warn you about him, but it appears you're fully aware of the danger."

The Sandaime Hokage sighed. "I appreciate it Iruka-san, but as Hokage, and the one that let him join your class, I should've known myself."

"Hai," Iruka concurred respectfully. "Naruto sees him as practically a brother now."

_'So don't interrogate him too hard or throw him out, or your Jinchūriki will probably go berserk,'_ the Hokage interpreted. Although Iruka was too courteous to go close to saying that to the village leader.

"Yes. We'll be discreet. You're dismissed, Iruka-san." The older man nodded.

Iruka gave a forced smile and left quickly. Kakashi relaxed his rather tense grip on his Icha Icha book and vanished away.

The Hokage just sat back down with a long, weary sigh, running his hands through his hair and grabbing his pipe. "You heard that, too, Jiraiya?"

"Yep." The Toad Sannin re-appeared in the room, dispelling his Tōton [Transparent Escape] technique. He too sported a deep frown. "He's not wasted any time getting engrained into the village. I can see why you're reluctant to move in."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he _was_ Naruto's closest friend despite being here only two days." The Third sighed. "The last thing I want is _his_ legacy to become hostile."

Jiraiya blinked at the Professor's blunt wording. "Yep. I still think you need to send him to T&amp;I. Keep it light, though, be careful to do that. In fact, you could even just call him here, to your office, and get him to fess up to you."

The Third nodded grimly. Like it or not, this new information had just made the situation more volatile, and still just as dangerous. They still needed more info on whoever sent Yasha, even more now.

* * *

"Yasha-kun?" Shikamaru called him over from the shade of a tree. Chouji was with him, munching on a bag of chips, no surprise there.

"Yo, Shikamaru-san." Yasha was overly polite to the Nara member. "Chouji-kun."

Chouji grunted, shoving another handful of chips into his mouth and watching disinterestedly.

The Nara went on. "I meant to ask you yesterday, what did you talk about with my father?"

"Your father?" Yasha had to think for a bit before he caught on. "You mean Shikaku-san?"

"Yeah," Shikamaru confirmed lazily, but with a keen eye on Yasha's reaction.

"Oh… I have a shadow-based bloodline, I showed it to him to see if it was related to the Nara's techniques." That wasn't the primary reason, but it was one of them.

"Hmm… And…?" Shikamaru pressed.

Yasha shrugged. "He didn't tell me. He just watched me use my bloodline and we both went home after. I did ask if he could train me to use Nara shadow techniques, but he said he wanted to ask Hokage-sama first."

Shikamaru was quite surprised. His father hadn't refused it on the spot? Clan techniques were _never_ taught to those outside the clan. They were way too closely guarded for that. Why did his father even consider it?

"You use _shadow_ techniques Yasha-kun?" Naruto asked with surprise.

"Aye. Very scary ones," Yasha said with a grin. "I can't demonstrate now, though. Using it outside a real deathmatch would be too dangerous."

"Can you show me them?!" Naruto begged, as if he hadn't heard at all.

"No, Naruto. I just said that. What do you specialise in?" Yasha asked.

He grabbed Naruto's hands before he Henge'd into a girl. "And I don't mean the Oiroke [Sexy] technique!"

"Oh, um…" Naruto scratched the back of his head. "I don't really have a speciality."

Yasha wasn't particularly surprised by that. No training in the ninja arts and no teachers would kind of stunt your ability to pick a speciality.

Shikamaru helped Naruto out of his embarrassment, logic'ng it away. "Well, you don't have a clan, and no one to learn from apart from Iruka. That's troublesome."

Chouji offered his suggestion. "Does Iruka know anything he'll be able to teach you?"

"It's not that simple, Chouji-kun," Shikamaru said lazily but was forced to explain when he saw two of the three other boys now donned confused looks. "Whoever he learns from will teach him a style of fighting and jutsu that will become the foundation of any future work. If you learn strong punches over speed, your muscles will gain weight, but not leanness; you'll lose on agility. The difference over the two will only become greater over time. Every technique has a weakness, even the Nara's, we have to stay still to use shadow techniques. There's a reason Iruka hasn't made jounin, and he'll hit the same walls as Iruka did."

Chouji grunted. His friend was smart. "So what's your training plan Yasha-kun?"

"Get stronger," Yasha said simply. "I know several reasons why all of us in this class and this village need to improve strength as much as they can."

"Oh?" Shikamaru prompted, eyes narrowing slightly. _'That sounds like a warning.'_

"Yeah." Yasha didn't reveal anything more. If he did reveal the future, the amount of chain reactions that would cause would leave the future dangers in question. And worse, would make their enemies change their plans once the rumour had gone around a member knew the future. "I have a feeling there's a lot of darkness coming in the next few weeks," he offered ambiguously.

No one else really knew how to respond to that. Yasha opted to ask Chouji about his clan to break the verbal stalemate.

"Oh, you convert the food into Yang chakra? That explains why you can keep eating and stay healthy," Yasha thought out loud. "And you don't look as fat as it should make you. The calories on those chips are off the scale."

He bent down in front of Chouji, gesturing at his stomach. "You store the excess chakra to the front and sides of the stomach, right?"

Chouji nodded with a slightly distracted look as he tried to work out if Yasha called him fat. He glanced at Shikamaru who raised one eyebrow and shook his head slightly.

Yasha was oblivious to that silent communication. "That's quite cool."

"What is?" Naruto asked, not really following. But what Yasha called cool he wanted in on.

Yasha explained. "Whenever he's eating he's gaining more chakra. And he eats all the time. So he's constantly getting stronger."

"Ohhh…" Naruto gazed at Chouji with a new respect.

"Imagine gaining chakra _all the time_… you'd get pretty strong." Yasha stared off as he wondered if he could apply that to himself.

Not a chance. He attracted more darkness particles whenever he moulded new chakra. Right now he had low levels, and people saw him as slightly threatening. If he increased his levels, they'd be more scared when they saw him. The last thing he wanted was his friends uncomfortable around him.

Maybe some sort of seal was possible to hide the KI. The information scroll gave only a few titbits of who had experience with seals – a 'Legendary Sannin' called Jiraiya, rarely in the village, famous for being perverted, and the Third Hokage himself.

In short, Yasha was stuffed if he wanted sealing instructions, beside the Konoha Library. Since he knew practically nothing ninja, he planned to go there today as well during his stock-up. Hopefully a taijutsu style was available that he liked. The instruction scroll hadn't had its location but did say it existed.

He also wanted to learn a clone technique. There were details about how Naruto had taken the Scroll of Sealing, and learnt Shadow Clone Technique, although the scroll neglected to say why. He had to reproduce those events, and get that for himself. Besides bloodlines, it was the only possible way of cloning where you kept your knowledge and were able to think about new scenarios. That was a third level of clone.

The second level of clones, presented with new information, didn't react to it. If they were sent to attack, they'd attack old and newcomer enemies alike. You had to be within range to manipulate the chakra within them to change the simplistic commands in their head. It was still useful for spreading the enemies' attention and distracting, but not for learning anything.

And the first level of cloning was just an illusion. Easy to see through, and most jounin and some chuunin could create it without seals. If the enemy thought he'd hit you, and you'd swapped with something else, a first level clone would hold that illusion a bit longer, giving you precious seconds.

Yasha wanted to learn and do a lot quickly. Only a third-level clone would help with that, but those were A-Level techniques, and he had chakra good enough for one C-Rank technique, at a guess. But he wasn't sure when Naruto had gone and taken the scroll. He might have time to beef up his chakra, but at any rate knowing how to use the technique, even if he hadn't the chakra to use it, would be better than no hope at all.

_'Hmm. Easy solution to that; spread the requirement.'_

So Yasha announced, "If any of you guys come across Shadow techniques, outside of the Nara ones, let me know."

Yasha gazed somewhat pointedly at Naruto, who nodded dutifully. Then the brunette glanced around. "You guys know anywhere to get furniture?"

Shikamaru was finding Yasha quite perplexing. With that deliberate stare at Naruto, it was almost like he was expecting Naruto to know one already, but Naruto had said he had no real style, so…

As they were discussing shops, Hinata observed from a good twenty metres away. If she hadn't been eating, her fingers would have been absentmindedly twiddling together.

"I'm happy for you Naruto-kun… you've got a good friend in Yasha," she murmured with a slight smile. She could see from the slight redness of Naruto's eyes he had been crying, but he seemed to be genuinely happy now. She couldn't bring herself to go over and ask _why_ he had been crying. He always seemed to be covering up pain with smiles. Under her Byakugan she had seen a lot of injuries he had covered up over the year. More than once she had been tempted to go to the teachers, but there was no way she would be able to face her father after her constant observation of Naruto was revealed.

Yasha looked over at her and grinned. She managed a smile back, a blush appearing in embarrassment at having been caught looking.

Then he gestured for her to come over. She felt her heartrate multiply instantly as she realised she'd be close to her blond crush. As she gave no response, he frowned, and his hands switched through seals. _'What's up Hinata?'_ his voice echoed in her head.

That was weird: she didn't even feel the slightest entry of chakra as he activated the mental link. She had thought it was like a genjutsu, if you anticipated it you'd detect the external chakra entering your system. But not the slightest difference.

_'I don't want to be so close to you,' _Hinata thought before she realised how rude that sounded. As Yasha's grin vanished, she hurriedly clarified. _'I-I mean, it's not you, I don't dislike you, it's uh… there's no real way to say it!'_

_'If something makes you uncomfortable, you'll have to do it more, harden yourself against it.'_ Yasha offered.

_'Exposure therapy.' _Hinata agreed mentally. _'I've been trying for the best part of a year, but I'm no better.'_

_'Who makes you uncomfortable?'_

_'Naruto-kun.' _Hinata thought before she caught herself again. She wasn't used to mental talking; her thoughts were being sent even if she didn't want to.

_'Because he's a dead-last?'_ Yasha probed.

_'NO!' _Hinata yelped defensively. _'He's strong.'_

Watching Yasha who was apparently standing in the middle of the group with his fingers to his head, she saw a wicked grin appear on his face.

_'You llllike him, huh?' _Yasha rolled out the syllable mentally with his evil grin growing.

Hinata released chakra from around her head and hoped that would break the link, but his grin remained, getting her steadily more flustered until…

"Whoa." Yasha, with his eyes closed for concentration, only realised what had happened when he heard the soft thump on the grass. As he jogged over to inspect with Naruto trailing behind him, he was intercepted by a gaggle of fangirls and had to dart around them, suppressing a smile out of concern for Hinata. If she'd had a mouthful of food she could be choking on it.

She didn't, and Yasha quickly checked her over before he sighed with relief – CPR wasn't necessary, which was good… he didn't actually _know_ it. He made a mental note to learn it – as a ninja the chance of someone needing it was kinda high.

He picked her up instead, holding her limp arm over his shoulder. He idly considered talking Naruto into giving CPR, but that was a bit _too_ cruel.

The fangirl group's nattering got louder as he went back to Shikamaru with Naruto helping him across. They didn't seem pleased that Hinata had apparently scored contact with their object of affection.

"She's got a good lunch," Naruto grumbled longingly as he brought her half-eaten bento box over as well.

Yasha threw a ration bar at his head playfully. "Eat that then. It tastes great."

He strode off quickly, heard a yelp of disgust from behind him and he ran for it as Naruto gave chase. "Don't waste it! That cost good money!"

"I'd rather eat the money, dattebayo!" Naruto shouted back, continuing to pursue him. Yasha was somewhat faster, but gave up running way before Naruto was tired. The blond tackled him roughly onto the grass.

The two attempted to force-feed the foul ration bar to each other before they were laughing too hard to tussle any more and the bar was an even less recognisable mush.

"This thing is like… eating something someone had eaten all the good stuff out of already," Naruto articulately put it after they had calmed down.

"Yeah. But it does say on the back… 'strictly for nutritional purposes'," Yasha read.

"What's that mean?" Naruto asked between pants for breath.

"It means it tastes like crap," simplified Yasha and they started laughing again.

Yasha glanced over at the girls that had not-to-subtly followed them at a distance. "I wonder if this will lose me a few fangirls."

* * *

It didn't, but none of them approached him, either, nor Sasuke for that matter. That the Uchiha ate his lunch halfway up a tree for privacy probably contributed.

Lunch ended and the two housemates had an uneventful school day. Sasuke didn't say a word to Naruto, and Yasha occasionally re-explained a few of the lessons' points to his blond housemate quietly.

After school the two went around town. Oddly, Naruto seemed to attract taxes, so after the first shop Yasha decided to have him Henge into another form – Naruto went for a boy that looked like Yasha's twin, for lack of imagination. Yasha felt obligated to restrict him when he saw that.

"Naruto, if you transform into me when I'm not around, I'll paint you green and tie you upside down to the Hokage monument under the Third's nose." Yasha threatened sweetly.

Naruto's scared face transformed into a copy of his own was quite interesting for Yasha to see. The darkness user found seeing Naruto wandering around wearing his body was quite off-putting. He lost track of how many times his brain did double-takes, expecting mirrors of some sort. Naruto's personality and mannerisms in his body was quite funny to watch as well.

At one point they passed a flower shop, and Ino came out to greet them. She was somewhat confused by the twin effect as two Yashas greeted her, so they challenged her to work out who was the real one. They were a bit put out when she picked correctly.

"You're both physically the same, but Yasha has a certain… aura about him," Ino explained. "Plus, his body posture isn't so… open."

Naruto had his hands behind his head, looking up at the sky, stomach widely exposed, while Yasha had his in his pockets, taking in his surroundings near-constantly with a vaguely concerned look.

He had had the subtlest feeling of being watched, but he couldn't see a trace of a viewer. But he found he couldn't ignore it either, so he was left looking around a lot hoping to catch a glimpse.

After a short conversation with Ino, eventually he and Naruto went to a furniture store, spending about half an hour examining the options and grabbing a couch that was relatively cheap but was comfortable enough to sleep in. They then manhandled it across town, not wanting to pay the extra 1k ryou to have it sealed into a scroll.

Then Yasha decided to handle the sudden increase in his rent. He strode down to the real estate agent, leaving Naruto behind with promises of supper. The conversation went like this.

Yasha read the name tag hanging from the woman's shirt pocket.

"Hey, Mariko-san. Did you sell a house to the blond kid yesterday?"

"The de- you mean the Uzumaki? Yes," Mariko said, pausing in her paperwork and analysing the boy she vaguely recalled.

"Great, great. I read in the for-sale that it was going for 15k a month. But he paid out 45k? Can you explain that to me please?"

She looked up at him with a 'are you serious?' expression before sighing. "We had an increase in the price, to twenty thousand ryou, and the insurance for an underage purchase is five thousand ryou. First and last month's pay is forty thousand, with the underage tax, forty-five."

"Okay, great." Yasha smiled charmingly.

He held up the for-sale notice, tapping the print on the bottom. "Firstly, that place was abandoned two years ago. The price has not increased since it was renovated; there's no owner to do that, and if the agent did, it counts as false advertising to have the wrong price publically displayed. Secondly, I would like you to show me the relevant legislation or terms that apply both the price increases. Within two minutes. Or I start getting scary."

With a slightly twisted smile, he stepped back and folded his arms, beginning to mould more chakra.

* * *

As it turned out, the child insurance _did_ exist, but was waived for outsiders who had been newly entered. And the price increase didn't exist at all. Yasha pretended not to notice the various jounin and chuunin gathered around the estate agents' as he left, the 15k ryou back in his possession.

He did frown in thought on the way back, though. His KI was too unrefined. Who would know best how to refine it? He wanted to be able to scare the pants off a person while not having anyone outside the room know he did anything. Then he could actually use an aspect of his bloodline without risking his target's death.

The darkness was hungry stuff, but smart. Once they had latched onto a target, unless a sufficient distraction hit them, they just gathered more and more to the target until as one, in less than a second, they consumed it. Tendons, skin, flesh, organs, blood…

And the darkness were willing enough to munch through lightbulbs as well, although nothing was "swallowed". It wasn't something they liked, but if they knew it would cause the area to darken, they would do it. Obviously, if he tried to turn off the sun or a fire, they'd just ignore him – not that he could make a chakra string to the sun.

From the instruction scroll, apparently they kept any targets healthy until they consumed them – even repairing minor injuries and such. If the target was bleeding heavily, they wanted as much blood inside it as possible when they finally tolled the dinner bell. You could compare it to wanting to chug a bottle of water and having a few small leaks in it; if you could you'd just patch it up.

It was a complete last resort to use them as a healing tool, though; the last thing you want is a person with a deep cut being replaced with a skeleton.

Oddly, chakra wasn't suppressed the same way as blood. The darkness just plain ignored chakra normally, and with the near-instant destruction of the flesh around it, you ended up with a skeleton and a quickly-dispersing cloud of chakra.

And no way to really save anyone who the darkness had chosen to eat. You either got the darkness off their targets: either by using a good bribe – throwing a dead cow at the target or something – or by brightening up the area a lot to disorientate them). But you had only a couple of minutes; you could drag it out by going somewhere light, or speed it up by making it dark.

Immersed in his thoughts, Yasha didn't notice it when two people stepped in front of him and absentmindedly tried to walk past them before his mind clicked as they stepped back into his way. Inwardly he slapped himself. _'Pay attention to the environment!'_

Two adults, one brown hair with brown eyes with no visible pupil, dressed slightly less than expected; one dark hair, wearing Konoha standard jounin attire. Probably not beatable, and it was most likely official, they hadn't yanked him into an alley.

"Can I help you two?" Yasha asked curiously, their focused expressions killing the instinct to smile. He had a sinking feeling as he realised these two meant _business_.

* * *

Naruto waited patiently on the bed. Well, patiently for him anyway. After the two had awkwardly got the sofa into the flat, he had released his Henge jutsu. Yasha had vanished saying he was going to grab some dinner.

That had been fifteen minutes ago, and Naruto was beginning to get concerned. Yasha had hurried to leave, he would hurry back.

_'If it's ration bars again…'_ Naruto shuddered. It might help for nutrition, but it was one of the worst meals he'd ever tasted. So dry and tasteless.

As his stomach growled again the concern grew to worry. He went to the door, glancing up and down the street, then went back indoors and began to pace. He couldn't shake the slowly growing feeling of dread.


	9. Yasha's interrogation

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 9: Yasha's interrogation**_

* * *

**AN: **Hello, loyal minions.

I'll probably write more a few minutes after posting this, but won't publish until the weekend. I'm not a fan of abandoning projects, but I'm not used to have subscribers to projects, either. It's quite good motivation, although having just two reviews is a bit dismal, and one (I hope sarcastic) review saying you can't sue someone for ripping off fanfiction. Yeah, I was being sarcastic about that as well.

Legally, there's no point, since you'll need a cease-and-desist sent first; and if you did sue, you could only sue for lost profits, which has the grand total of £0 for my efforts.

It'd be like someone stealing the whole pot of free breadsticks from a restaurant. Yeah, it's in very poor taste, but there's no way someone would put it to court.

Without further ado, here is the new chapter, a pleasant interrogation scene. Yasha should count his blessings that no one specialising with emotion-reading is nearby.

* * *

"Hello, Yasha-san. I've heard a lot about you," the most powerful man in Konoha greeted.

"Hopefully not from my fangirls," Yasha replied dryly. It took most of his ability to subdue his emotions in front of the Third Hokage. The cold logic that Naruto was too attached to Yasha now to be taken away didn't make the conversation any more pleasant.

Yasha had luckily gotten used to killer intent from his own bloodline – he felt the level that his enemies did, but had the assurance that it wasn't going to harm him. The first few times he'd barely managed to stop shivering from the pressure of his own bloodline, and held it for all of a few seconds. Hopefully the Hokage's KI wasn't as bad as pure flesh-desiring hunger; Yasha was fairly certain use of it would come up in this little talk.

"I don't remember seeing your face before," the wizened old Kage said almost idly, his sharp eyes and calculating look betraying his tone. He had opted to talk to Yasha alone – T&amp;I on a child was overkill and would arouse the council and clan heads' interest; something he decidedly wanted to avoid. For whatever Jiraiya said, Yasha hadn't been hostile to anyone bar the amount necessary to sneak in.

Yasha had his own calculative thoughts. _'So, he's going the long route of saying he knows I broke in. I suppose he'll have to be brutally quick with his threats and end the conversation with them, so this precursory idle chat is the only way he'll get to know me.'_

"I'm not trying to stand out, Hokage-sama. I dislike the attention of humans."

The Hokage frowned slightly. Not a response he was expecting. "Why so?"

"They're too irritating. It's like living in a world filled with colourful fog. It's pretty at times but you can't tell what the hell's going on."

A very detailed analogy. The ANBU at the door shot the boy a glare for his language in front of the Hokage but was holding back a small knowing smile under his mask. The ninja world really _didn't_ make sense. With all the techniques, the genjutsu, the politics, the vying bids for power, underhand and two-faced missions, it was one of the most confusing things someone could get involved with.

"Would Naruto be one of those colours?" the Hokage continued to humour him. As much as his words rang true, and spoke of an uncommon wisdom for his age, this was a village infiltrator.

Yasha half-smiled. "Yeah. A bright orange menace. Nearly dyed black, not that most people cared or the others would notice."

There was a brief pause but the Hokage just nodded slightly for him to continue, the small frown remaining. There were too many ways to interpret what Yasha was saying – Naruto's choice of clothes, the orange-furred beast sealed within him, his pranking menace, the way everyone looked at him like a menace.

It was an S-class secret about Naruto's Jinchūriki status. Theoretically he shouldn't know. But neither should the outsider make a beeline for the blond energy ball either.

"The ones that might notice trust too much in everyone else to fix it," Yasha continued idly, almost slouching as his eyes trailed part of the ceiling. "It's disappointing."

A firm judgement on the villagers for their treatment of the blond. The Hokage certainly didn't disagree. "Well, Yasha, you've got an interesting perspective on the world. Rather cynical. Are you just controlling Naruto?"

Yasha didn't get angry. He didn't flush. He didn't even twitch. In fact the Hokage even wondered if he heard him or he was lost in the foggy world ideas.

Then Yasha sighed, sounding drained, "I suppose, to move against the tide, you must 'control' the vessel. If all the captains are just ignoring the rudder, a cabin boy has to step up."

_'If I don't help Naruto, no one will. Even if I'm not fit for it, I'll do my best,'_ The Hokage decoded.

"Did you come into the village just for Naruto-kun?" the Hokage knew that wasn't the case. Shisui.

"No, he was a minor objective for my mission. But I insisted on it when I saw his condition."

The old soldier noted Yasha didn't hide his other actions at all. _'Ah, some honesty. He's the type that can manipulate easily, and so prefers not to be seen as dishonest, so lies as little as possible. It'll be hard to spot his lies, but he'll speak mostly complete truth."_

"And the main objective?"

Yasha nodded. "That would be the shadow clan I heard so much about. My bloodline needs to be trained properly, I can't just grab anyone for it. It's my chance of reward for coming here. Besides being around Naruto."

The Hokage scribbled on the paper in front of him, as if writing down Yasha's words. As if on cue, the ANBU behind Yasha scuffed his shoe slightly. _'Intimidation tactics,'_ Yasha noted distractedly, fixated more on the Hokage's unrevealing facial expression than his scribbles. _'It means I'm watching you; tell the truth.'_

"And why did you sneak in instead of direct support?"

"My sponsor has chosen to be anonymous. And such a thing isn't well liked in a ninja village."

"You're quite right, Yasha-san." The Hokage had gotten to the undeniably suspicious parts of Yasha. He leaked some KI, but Yasha didn't react. Probably his bloodline hardened him against it. He lost the grandfatherly tone and his face hardened. "So let's get down to business. You may be twelve, but that's not going to stop me from protecting my village by_ any means necessary_. Be honest."

The Hokage increased his KI until he was almost maxed out, and was rewarded with a sweat breaking out on the boy's head, some slight trembling, and his slouch tightening. Less of a reaction than the ANBU beside him. _'That's an admirable tolerance. Highly unusual,'_ he thought, impressed. "Now tell me: who sent you?"

Yasha couldn't think straight under the KI. Being used to the feeling didn't mean his body and mind wasn't affected by it. His thoughts were distorted by it and he wasn't sure how he could keep the truth hidden, let alone figure out what to say.

He had fortunately thought _a lot_ about what to say when the Hokage eventually confronted him. Four options: Pretend to have overheard Orochimaru, or say you're from the future, or incriminate a member of Akatsuki, or act like you're under a powerful genjutsu.

He wanted to avoid the second. A genjutsu would be possible to fake, just pretend it's the type that destroys the brain on memory breach, and mind-reading would be avoided, a must to protect the future.

Mentions of Orochimaru would definitely call for lockup, even if he pretended to have just overheard rather than being a subordinate, and his heat would increase. With the excess emotional reaction from the Hokage, that was a lesser option over the genjutsu.

With Akatsuki out the picture or at least not well enough known for it, that would also increase his heat from being unknown.

And that left him with one good option, which had the best chance of making him seem trustworthy.

_'Genjutsu time. Remember: pain, confusion, persistence, disruption. This is the final reset and if you fail at this, you and most of the world is screwed. No pressure.'_

Stifling a chuckle, he let his eyes glaze over and wander to the left and briefly distorted his chakra flow like he was reacting to something. "I… don't know."

He grabbed his head, bending over with a harsh breath of fake pain. "Ow!"

The Hokage's KI lessened considerably, probably from surprise. "Are you alright Yasha?"

"I'm fine. The bastard -_ow!_ – didn't want to let himself be known. If I think-" he yelped in pain and crumpled to the floor, avoiding the instinct to catch himself and gaining a bruise from the wood for his efforts.

But the act was effective. The ANBU was by his side in an instant and the remaining KI vanished. He kept up the gasping through gritted teeth and clutched his head so hard he actually began to give himself a headache.

"Yasha-san!" the ANBU said abruptly as he put his hand on the boy's wrist and forehead – measuring pulse and temperature.

Yasha kept his chakra fluctuating wildly – it actually helped that he had poor chakra control, the unrefined distortion was rather convincing. He kept his thoughts racing as well, doing the times table in his head as quickly as possible.

He calmed himself down after about fifteen seconds, having gone through 1x1 to 10x10. The fake genjutsu/mind seal was meant to be formidable but not completely dangerous. _'Overdo it and they'd throw you out before you explode on them. Was that even possible for a mental seal?'_ Yasha had no clue if it was.

The ANBU – there was now two beside him, actually, the new one using a medical diagnosis technique – was using some ninja hand signs to the Hokage. The medical diagnosis was stopped a few seconds after it started – Yasha could feel the darkness particles pushing against the foreign intrusion with irritation, no doubt it was making it useless to read him, but the fluctuating could be felt by anyone elite enough.

Yasha silently noted failing medical techniques could become a problem later if he actually was hurt.

The Third Hokage changed tact. "So, you know who he is. I don't need his identity, but can you tell me his intentions?"

"Goo- good," Yasha said shakily, pushing off the ANBU's hands and wobbling back to his feet, gripping the desk hard for support. He had to make this as realistic as possible; there were at least three elite pairs of eyes examining his every twitch. He was somewhat happy that the sweating from the KI has happened; it masked the fact he hadn't generated it during the fake pain crisis.

"He's put some sort of seal or something. I didn't see it, but it made me obey what he said next, or I get the mother of all headaches," Yasha continued with a bit of regret in his tone.

"Tell me about it," the Hokage prompted gently.

"The seal's commands are just I can't tell you his identity. But my objectives can be told. Two major objectives, both S-rank, and one minor, Naruto. If I said either, you might kill me, so I'd prefer not to. He said the seal also has an unconscious, mental self-destruct trigger, if that means much to you. And he said something else, a bit odd, but he said any future commands coming from him can be ignored."

"He definitely said that?" the Third asked intensely.

Yasha nodded, wincing at mostly imaginary pain the motion caused. He did have a minor throbbing and headache from the tight grip on his own head earlier, though. "Definitely."

_'Odd,'_ the Hokage considered, _'Why would he limit himself that way? It only benefits us, and to an extent helps us trust Yasha. Was that the game?' _He could either go along with what Yasha was spouting, or disarm him lethally.

The Hokage took some solace in that the pain Yasha had felt was real enough. The ANBU had confirmed the oddity of his chakra flow as the Hokage had detected when he was in pain – it wasn't a simple fake. No pre-genin that could barely make it into Konoha would've come up with the idea of messing about with his chakra levels like he was in a genjutsu. From Iruka's report he had no clue about the basics, and genjutsu chakra effects weren't really discussed until Chuunin.

"Tell me the two objectives," the Third ordered.

"Um… okay. First is academy infiltration. My sponsor is concerned about Uchiha Sasuke, and some others in that year group. I have only basic info on them, though. The second is a secret that you and Shisui share, and the third name is… with the birds."

The Hokage's eyes widened and jaw dropped for a couple of seconds in sheer disbelief as he connected the dots. Itachi summoned ravens; and the only interaction the two had was…

_'No one would __**dare**__ spread information about that except…_'

His jaw shut with an audible click and his face began to betray the sheer level of hot rage he had rapidly building up. "ANBU, dismissed."

The ANBU lingered for a second longer than usual, clearly uneasy about this due to the boy's reputation as the 'KI alarm clock', but stayed professional and vanished smoothly.

"Yasha, is this matter to do with…" the Hokage left the rest unsaid, eyes as hard as flint.

Yasha looked around (_'As if he could have detected the ANBU if they had remained,' _the Hokage thought wryly). Then he spoke.

"Itachi, Shisui, you and my sponsor stand against it and want peace." The Hokage released a sigh that shook through his whole body as Yasha continued, "The scroll I gave Shisui held instructions that should help prevent it. I'm meant to have no part bar the message, just steering clear and hoping it succeeds."

"Hoping?" The Sandaime repeated.

"Yes. Sorry, Hokage-sama. The scroll only contains written advice, there is no seal or any sort of complete solution," Yasha explained wistfully. "I hadn't even met the two until a near-coincidence yesterday."

The Third was deep in thought now. _'Barring an unintentional leak… only Danzō would consider releasing the information to gain access to Sharingan in the bloodbath that followed, but no way would he help the Uchiha otherwise. He was opposed to a peaceful solution, he thought it wasn't possible, or wouldn't last. Maybe it's true, maybe not, but the point is he wouldn't go against himself to obtain peace through annihilation. And with his persistent Root, if Yasha was sent by him the emotions of this boy would be all but gone, not to mention he would…'_

"Yasha, stick out your tongue."

"Huh?" Yasha was perturbed but did so.

_ 'No seal,' _the Hokage gestured for him to close his mouth again. "What do you know about Danzō?"

"He's not interacted with me at all. He was mentioned in Shisui's warning and my instructions."

With no seal and discussing Danzō, there was no way he was in Root. The Hokage moved on his analysis. '_Danzō has always been someone who hides his tracks but Root's seal can't be placed elsewhere. What Yasha has, a mental seal, is far more complex than Danzō's one. It suggests a much higher level. In the Leaf, that left just Jiraiya and Orochimaru… not even Kakashi would be able to pull this off, they'd need to be outside the village. And have information on the bloodline._

_'Jiraiya should know about the Uchiha, but only as unrest, and he didn't recognise Yasha, judging from his reactions yesterday. The lack of knowledge __**could**__ have been a ruse, disguising that he sent Yasha, but it's not his style, and he wouldn't have insisted on T&amp;I._

_'Orochimaru though… he's all but in love with the Sharingan, and Yasha's apparent __**extremely**__-rare bloodline would have attracted his attention for experiments more than spying. But, again, it's not Orochimaru's style. He'd just __**talk**__ Yasha into doing it – he's a master of manipulating, a kid wouldn't stand a chance – and the seal would never deny him the ability to move Yasha to his bidding in the future. In fact that denial doesn't make sense the more I think about it – any hostile party would use Yasha as a glorified spy or perhaps a sleeper agent after infiltration._

_'Plus, all three suspects have the ability to get Yasha into the village unnoticed, and train him to at least basics. They would insist on at least that much. There's no way in hell either Sannin nor Danzō would give an outsider pre-genin no training, some commands he might not be able to carry out, some __**explosive tags**__, then set him to march into a village with S-class secrets on hand – fully knowing he'll be detected before he even gets within three hundred metres of it. In fact, whoever sent him was an fool._

_'But not so much of a fool they didn't have a finger on the pulse of the darkest parts of Konoha. And the funds, although not shocking, are not something anyone below jounin could even save up for._

_'Or it could be a member from another country. Suna holds a weakening alliance, they wouldn't put in the effort, and the other countries have even less than that.'_

The Hokage noticed Yasha was fidgeting uneasily at the prolonged silence and began to break off his scrutiny. _'Well, I can't draw any conclusions, the man wanted to be anonymous, and Yasha wouldn't be suspect to T&amp;I, not even Inoichi could go near a seal so volatile just thinking of a topic got severe pain. Although I should confirm that._

_'No, like it or not, it was just Yasha's word and his actions. Maybe Jiraiya and Inoichi together could inspect his mind – but someone who knew about the damn __**Uchiha unrest**__ would know the abilities of the village's T&amp;I team._

_'It did suggest an outsider with funds and a strong information network, though. He knew of stuff very few people knew about, made a complex seal or found someone who could, and funded Yasha, but couldn't even sneak him into the village; a mark of someone who rarely visited themselves. But this is all guesswork; if I get Yasha under Shikaku's wing, he may find a loophole in the seal, or work out who sent him by sheer intellect.'_

_"_So…" Yasha looked understandably hesitant, "Where does this… you know… leave us?"

_'No need to drag it on any longer,'_ the Hokage decided. "You've befriended Naruto-kun and you want to protect your classmates?"

"Hai," Yasha declared firmly, a glimmer of hope materialising inside him. "With my life."

The Hokage reached into a drawer and pulled out a long stapled form, pushing it towards the boy. "Then your _official_ admittance to the village, and training under the Academy is accepted, Yasha-kun."

The wide and shocked grin Yasha wore could have rivalled Naruto's.

* * *

Yasha had been filling in the forms in a nearby room with the Hokage's help. He had no information about his parents or clan, which made it somewhat easier but was an unfortunate reminder of his lack of regular relationships. The Hokage opted to stay with him himself in order to wean more information about Yasha – his mental state was very intelligent, and as a shadow user, it wasn't a surprise when Yasha suggested his bloodline was an offshoot of the Nara clan.

But the Nara's didn't actually use a shadow bloodline – they just used shadow techniques that were hard to master and uncopiable by any doujutsu, but teachable to anyone over time. That sort of technique was called 'Hiden', and was the basis of all clans that didn't have a bloodline, such as the rest of the Ino-Shika-Cho set.

Eventually, the Hokage looked it over and signed it. He gave one more firm welcome and dismissed the new member of the village. He needed to inform the council that a new bloodline was in the village, but he wanted to delay that for a few weeks under the pretence of administration – the later Danzō could hear of it the better.

Although he doubted that he would do something as bold as kidnapping, a genjutsu and interrogation with a following memory wipe would _completely_ be his style. And not being able to erase the interrogation would make the attempt very… unstable.

Once dismissed, the Hokage wandered slowly back to his office, deep in thought, and was surprised to find Naruto pacing back and forth, clearly waiting for him. "Jiji! Have you seen Yasha?!"

The Third took a moment to examine Naruto's open expression. Worry, fear, anxiety, very high levels of them. Yasha had gotten so close to him over the last three days. _'Probably a way to secure his position in the village; he rushed to him straight-away. Clever. Probably clever enough to fake his story… Yasha's chakra is too unusual for the Uchiha to analyse for lies properly-'_

"Jiji!" Naruto's impatient cry interrupted his thoughts.

The Hokage smiled at the small boy. "Naruto, yes, he's fine. I was having him sign some last forms for entry into the village. He's a member of Konoha now."

Naruto took a few seconds to process that statement, with his emotions flickering all over the place, before diving onto him in a hug. "You're the _best_ Jiji, dattebayo!"

"Ho? What did I do now?" the Third Hokage smiled.

"It's just…" Naruto released him and looked up with a beaming smile. "Yasha's the _coolest, _dattebayo! He's strong and funny and nice and… and… he even bought me ramen!"

"Oh? That must have set him back a bit," the Hokage half-joked.

Naruto wasn't deterred. "Yeah, but he's rich. He bought a house and said he'd let me live with him!"

"So you can do his dirty laundry, right?"

"Jiji!" Naruto scowled at him. "Yasha-kun's not like that. He's a good guy."

"You're sure, hmm? I bet he didn't even tell you at the meeting I could just have easily have expelled him from the village."

Naruto hesitated. "He didn't tell me about the meeting at all…" he was deep in thought for a few seconds before his face brightened again. "_Yosha!_ I'm going to get him to buy me ramen as payback for that, dattebayo! See ya Jiji!"

Like a mini whirlwind he vanished back out the door and all the excited energy in the room trailed out with him, leaving only the dull drabs of administration and routine. The Hokage sat down heavily on his chair and reached for his pipe.

* * *

**AN:** Hope you enjoyed the chapter, folks. Drop a review if you want, it'll make the story more likely to gain new readers, and if you enjoyed it, share the love!  
See you on the flip side.

_(yes, it's a FNAF reference)_


	10. Manipulation

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 10: Manipulation**_

* * *

**AN: **Enjoy the chapter, folks.  
Windows 8.1's File History feature is complete BS, by the way. Lost the good part of three chapters thanks to it. I've switched to a better backup (free one called Cobian, if you were interested).

Manipulation, the primary tool for Yasha. He's demonstrated it quite a lot, and here you see a bit of how he thinks. I suspect many people feel like him with regards to humanity or trust, too.

Give me a review or follow as you see fit, the more you enjoy, the more you share.  
Unless it's food. Then you ain't sharing jack. You know it, I know it, let's just forage for ourselves.

Yasha's just come from the Hokage, pretending to be under a huge mind-genjutsu-seal-induced pain whenever he attempts to say who sent him. Genjutsu is the art of putting chakra on someone's senses and mind, hence a seal on someone's brain is genjutsu.  
That's from canon - if you're interested, check out the mind investigation of the Rain ninja Jiraiya captured; Inoichi calls the memory protection, genjutsu protection (I know that much since I've watched the Pein invasion a lot and it's part of the scenes).  
Yasha's pulled it off, as far as he knows…

* * *

_'Genjutsu worked, huh?' _Yasha was downright shocked he had pulled it off – blatantly lying in front of trained shinobi, and they hadn't even persisted with trying to get his sponsor's name.

Maybe the swarms of darkness in his body hid the subtle bodily indicators to lying. Yasha wasn't stupid, he knew from what he had read about the Sharingan the lying would normally be picked up. But the two Uchiha's instant tension when they had seen his chakra confirmed what the instruction scroll had already said – his chakra was full of the small black particles and monitoring that was not something easily adjusted to for any doujutsu.

They didn't _eat_ his chakra, but they simply used its pathways to camp in, and outnumbered the larger chakra particles so much it was comparable with having replaced it. And the speed, multitude and size lead to a giant headache to trace, much less attempt to see past them to find the chakra they surrounded.

Maybe the chakra masking also masked his emotions as well, but Yasha had always been a dark-minded boy anyway. Lying and emotion-controlling was something he was used to.

Yasha knew he had chakra, obviously, even if no one could see it. His attempts to spread out the darkness from his hand (the fake summoning technique he had showed Shikaku), was done by flooding as much chakra flat on the ground as possible, leading to the darkness following where he'd flushed it out. They responded to his chakra, as if he had the promise of future deaths. He normally had his chakra in his body, so once he expelled it and it dissipated into the air, the darkness particles clung to Yasha's own shadow, recognised he was flesh, marked him as a possible target, and proceeded to _wait_…

Yasha wasn't sure if they actually _would_ attack him if he took too long with his shadow darkened. To target the being who had the same chakra as what called them outside, it did seem a little stupid, but the way they marked him was the same as the way their prey was marked; his shadows darkened, extra silhouettes appeared, and he could feel a paralysingly strong sense of danger. He kept very still whenever he did use it; a still target meant still shadow, thus the darkness didn't have to move, and hopefully wouldn't be excited by movement. He wasn't sure of their intelligence, and it could be a hivemind or individual particle intelligence…

He was deep in thought, relief flooding through his system in waves from the moment he'd left the Hokage tower, and with all that going on he was disorientated.

He heard someone call "YASHA!" but before he could turn around he was roughly tackled, hands wrapped around the front of his ribs. The assailant's full momentum hit him from behind, driving the wind out of him and shoving him face-first into the road.

"Naruto, did you have to do that?!" he groaned as he identified his 'attacker', trying to pull him off without success. "Can't you wait a bit longer for food?"

The boy didn't respond, his head firmly buried in Yasha's back. "I heard what was going on, Yasha," he said in a muffled voice after a few ticks. "The Hokage could have made you leave Konoha just now."

Yasha stopped struggling and his eyes widened. _'Did he know that I snuck in? No, be calm. The Hokage wouldn't have told him that. What would the Hokage have told him then?'_

"Sorry, Naruto," he ventured, not giving away anything.

Naruto looked up at him. "Don't do that again. Don't ever hide things like that from me, dattebayo!"

"I… uh…" Yasha found himself at a loss for words. He could see panic fading from Naruto's eyes and the unbridled concern was throwing him off from everything he attempted to think. On impulse he just hugged back. "It's fine, Naruto. I wouldn't go even if they paid me. Otherwise you'd have forgotten to pay me back for lunch by the time you become Hokage."

As Naruto beamed at him, reassured by the characteristic sarcasm, Yasha began to realise Naruto's maturity was noticeably lower compared to his own. Having the concepts of time travel, flesh-consuming darkness and sneaking into a village, not to mention _why_ he was going back in the first place, had forcibly matured Yasha's thinking process – and their personalities were naturally different anyway. One was open and enthusiastic, the other sarcastic and introverted. Still, the difference was probably only a couple of years.

Hence despite the fact neither knew each other's age, and Yasha was only slightly taller, Naruto had adopted a following role.

But Yasha found it hard to resist enjoying the unrestrained emotions on the other's face whenever Naruto's requests were met – seeing such an emotional change for just giving someone a certain meal or an encouragement gave the black-haired boy a warm feeling of self-worth. It was very addictive.

Still, for someone who the instruction scroll said had been solely concerned with getting stronger and being the Hokage for recognition, it was odd he wasn't trying to be top dog. Maybe his stubborn streak would cancel it out when the two opinions eventually clashed. Or was Naruto's respect for him too high for it?

_'Whatever,' _Yasha dismissed the train of thought, _'Psychoanalysis should be left to the professionals.'_

"Well, Naruto-kun, I'm rather hungry…" as if on cue, Yasha's stomach growled, making Naruto chuckle, "…so we'll grab a takeaway from the nearest shop."

"Nearest ramen shop," Naruto corrected as they started walking side by side.

"If you pay for it!" Yasha smirked. "Or you could kiss my feet and… do the dishes for the next week."

"What?! Urgh! No!" Naruto hollered, sidestepping away from him.

"C'mon. I had a bath like a month ago." Yasha waved a sandal-clad foot at Naruto, waggling his toes invitingly. "They won't smell that bad."

He soon retracted his foot in favour of covering his ears.

* * *

Night had fallen and saw the two housemates wandering back, one carrying a small bag with instant ramen. Yasha had compromised.

"Did you seriously?" Naruto asked curiously as they approached the house.

"Hmm?" Yasha responded without turning his head.

"Did you seriously have a bath a whole month ago?"

"Well, yes." Yasha enjoyed Naruto's screwed-up face for a while. "And I also had a bath a week ago."

"Huh?" Naruto was obviously confused by the wordplay.

"Deception, my little Hokage. You assumed to was my most recent one just because of how I said it. I'm very skilled at manipulating you humans and your assumptions."

"Ohhh." Naruto looked somewhat awed as they climbed the steps to their house. Then he frowned. "Are you manipulating me as well?"

"If I was, I wouldn't tell you." Yasha smirked. "But after a few conversations I can manipulate someone."

Naruto nodded but didn't seem to believe him.

"Like how I defused Kiba," Yasha offered. "He was angry at me and I calmed him down very quickly."

He always liked manipulating people, and boasting of it would make it harder to whoever heard. Naruto was rather simple-minded, though, it was almost effortless to manipulate him, and Yasha reasoned he was naïve enough not to expect it even with forewarning.

"Do you manipulate everyone?" Naruto explored this new knowledge.

"Everything I do is carefully planned, Naruto-kun." Yasha unlocked and opened their front door. "Every word I say I think over several times, to figure out the reactions. So you could say I manipulate from the minute I've met someone."

"That's kinda creepy." Naruto criticised bluntly as they shrugged off their shoes. He pressed the hallway light-switch. "Can't you just be…" he paused, searching for the right word, "…honest?"

Yasha was taken aback. He'd never thought of it as constant dishonesty. "Maybe. But it's too risky. I've been hurt before, now it's… sort of instinctive damage control. For me and for everyone else."

"For everyone else?" Naruto wasn't really following the train of thought. How could manipulating everyone help protect _them_ from damage?

"Right." Yasha set down the bag of ramen pots on the table, not needing to wait until Naruto hit the kitchen light-switch as well. "Take for example, you throw a punch. I catch it, and I think it's too weak. If I say 'you suck', you'll get angry or sad. If I said 'there's room for improvement', you'd just get motivated. I really just said the same thing both times, but the wording changed your reaction."

Naruto thought deeply about that while Yasha prepared some of the ramen pots for supper.

"I see what you mean…" he ventured slowly, brow furrowed. "Is it really that easy to manipulate people?"

Yasha shrugged. "Not for you to do. You'll find it hard to manipulate. I'm an introvert; I'm used to it, observing passively and overthinking what I say. You're an extrovert."

"What's an introvert, Yasha-san?" Naruto sat down at one of the chairs as Yasha set the microwave.

"People who prefer being alone to being around other people. Extroverts are the opposite."

Naruto jumped out of his chair in fear. "You mean you don't like being around me?! Or anyone?"

Yasha was too tired to react to Naruto's typical overreaction. "Not just you. I like being alone and in a quiet place more than being around people. If I don't get my quiet when I want it I start being violent."

"Violent?" Naruto looked up at him like he had no idea Yasha was capable of being angry. _'If only he knew,'_ Yasha thought.

"Psychologically violent," Yasha clarified. "I start manipulating people into getting angry and fighting each other. That way I can be ignored and be alone properly, since their attention is elsewhere."

"That's not good, Yasha-kun." Naruto's sharp and direct rebuke made Yasha hesitate again as the blond scowled at him. "You shouldn't hide away from your friends or get them upset. That's nasty, dattebayo."

"I don't do it a lot." Naruto's expression and tone had been so _definite_ Yasha hastily defended himself before he even realised it. The way Naruto was so unreserved with every statement and emotion was such a contrast to Yasha's own nature it was quite jarring. "It's just…" Yasha brought the heated ramen over and slumped in his seat in sudden defeat. "… I dunno. I don't like people."

"Why?"

"They're a complicated mess." Yasha pressed his palms into his eyes, taking solace in the brief and mild amounts of pain it caused as imaginary lights flashed across his vision. "Humans' lives are a huge tangle of interactions and emotions that I'm dropped in the middle of."

"Are you scared?" Naruto asked quietly. "Of people?"

A long pause followed, Naruto waiting with surprising patience whilst Yasha searched his feelings.

"I suppose, but not for my sake," Yasha concluded finally. "I can manipulate everyone into liking me, or just being neutral with me. I can't help them if Person B doesn't like Person C. If someone didn't like you, I'm not sure I can get them to like you."

"Like me and Sasuke?"

Yasha twitched in suppressed surprise. _'Then again, Naruto's been sat next to him and not a word spoke between them – hardly unexpected.'_

"A bit like you and Sasuke, yeah. I control pretty much everything I do, and people notice it, even unconsciously. My body posture, facial expression, hand movement, pace that I walk, tone, words I say… everything can be set properly. I can trust myself with paying attention to all of that and getting it right when I need to.

"And I notice all those things in other people, as well. So I can adjust. But if I ask you to make it up to Sasuke, it wouldn't work so well. It might not even work at all, and if I told you how to manipulate him, it'd be… creepy for you as well."

Naruto was drinking it all in, but still didn't hear his answer. "So you don't like people?" he echoed.

"No," Yasha said frankly. "They're a huge pain. You as well. If I tell you the wrong thing I've got to work out what the right thing is as quickly as possible. It makes me edgy to talk to people, including you. That's why I need quiet alone time, so my brain can relax from it. It's the curse of being an introvert."

"What's the benefits?" Naruto pressed bluntly. It seemed to him it was just a shield against all people in general, and could lose Yasha friends Naruto knew he deserved to have.

Yasha lifted his head and peeled open a ramen pot, prompting Naruto to do the same and they dutifully glanced at the clock to keep time while the snacks cooled.

"It's a benefit as well. For starters, I can get people to do whatever I want, given enough time. Second, I notice a lot more emotions and details in people than most others do, so I can work out if someone's lying, or if an enemy is nearby, or something, without them even saying anything.

"I'm used to being alone, so I don't need a team to think clearly and do my best. And I'm used to studying alone as well, reading books and such, so I don't need a teacher as much. I end up more perceptive, better at manipulating and more in control of my emotions. And more independent."

Naruto nodded, partially satisfied. He didn't have to rescue Yasha from being introverted then. He knew the loneliness of having no friends.

As the thought struck him he voiced it. "Does it make you sad? To be scared of people?"

"I'm not _scared_ of people," Yasha protested wearily. "It just makes it harder for me to trust them, until I know I can overpower them somehow. And until then, yes, I find it hard to be relaxed and properly happy. But you've earned my trust. Part of it, anyway."

"From what?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"Being stupid, naïve, silly and open," Yasha said affectionately, earning a deep scowl. "You're so see-through I know you're not hiding anything. But deceiving people is easy so I'm still not completely sure about you. It might take years before I am."

"_Years_…" Naruto repeated numbly, a bit shocked. He couldn't _imagine_ being unsure about people for that long.

"Yeah. You like people if they do one nice thing for you. It's a weakness of yours. But it's also why I can trust you."

Yasha had briefly considered ending that sentence with 'demon fox', but decided against it. No point breaking the secret a few months early, and it'd hardly improve the relationship with Naruto if he acted like one of the less intelligent civilians for a while to prove a point.

At any rate, time to change the subject of the conversation. It was a bit too deep to give away on the third day of knowing them. "On another topic, I need to build up my chakra quickly. We should research as quickly as possible the best ways to do that."

Naruto nodded, not commenting on the abrupt change of conversation. He could tell it was uncomfortable for Yasha. "I can't even create a Bunshin properly. I have a low level of chakra, right?"

_'No, not at all, you just have too much due to the Yin chakra constantly building to replace the slowly leaking Yang of the Kyuubi; you can't control it properly,'_ Yasha thought.

"Maybe you do, but I don't think so. At any rate it's not a bad idea to learn. You remember about what I said about my techniques?"

"Scary shadows?" Naruto remembered.

"Quite. Whenever I mould chakra I get really, really scary. So, I have to be alone to do it. I can't even do it in the village."

"Oh. Is that why you don't want to demonstrate it?" the blond realised.

"Yeah. The shadows make me scary."

"Can't you hide them?"

"How so? No matter where I put them on me, I still end up scaring everyone."

"Oh." Naruto fell silent and began to eat the ramen with a rare slow pace. "I wondered why you… _feel_ dangerous."

"Yeah." Yasha sighed deeply and picked up his own chopsticks. "I noticed," he added sullenly. "Everyone instinctively doesn't like me. It's why I have to be so careful about what I say."

Naruto's expression became serious. _'He's like me… no one likes me either… except Hokage-jiji and him…'_

The two retired to bed shortly after, Yasha far too tired from the events of the day to endure training or studying, and Naruto's energy somewhat chilled down from the conversation. On the plus side, they both had toothbrushes now. Yasha was somewhat grateful for the opportunity to remove the build-up – he hadn't been able to on the journey to Konoha.

"Why doesn't the light work?" Naruto asked in surprise as he kept flicking the light-switch.

"The bulb needs replacing," Yasha explained, grinning as he remembered shattering it last night. "Watch out for the glass."

The two stepped around the glass carefully (neither cleaned it up, typical boys) and got into bed. Both stared up at the ceiling for a few minutes, deep in thought, until the blond spoke.

"Yasha-kun, do you like the dark?"

"It's like light is being silent. So yes, it's quite relaxing." Yasha smiled, feeling rather relaxed. "Why?"

"I think it's a bit scary," Naruto muttered quietly. He couldn't see anything again. He waved his hand in front of his face, but couldn't see an inch away, even though there was a street light outside that he had seen coming in. "Did you leave the curtains open?"

"We haven't _got_ any curtains put up yet, Naruto-kun. But don't worry, I can see in the dark anyway."

"I can't see anything," Naruto revealed glumly.

"Stop being a wimp, Hokage-sama. Go to sleep."

* * *

The next day was a Saturday. The two set out after eating breakfast (Yasha had to coerce Naruto not to eat ramen again) and wandered to the top of the Hokage monument, where they sat and gazed at the mid-morning view over the village.

The sun was shining and birds were chirping merrily. Yasha relaxed a little after a time had passed and no one had begun to approach them. He was very tense with knowing how many people were going to have their eyes on him.

"What was that message you gave to Shisui?" Naruto asked casually.

Yasha's eyes narrowed, but the other boy wasn't looking at him, so he wasn't demanding an explanation. Just an innocent personal question, then.

"Just some manipulation," he replied ambiguously.

"You can't tell me, then." Naruto looked depressed.

"Quite, Naruto-kun. Wanna spar?"

"Up here?" Naruto looked around as if expecting the Third to appear and tell them off for the suggestion.

"Why not. Whoever falls off and dies horribly from multiple broken bones loses."

Naruto looked like he wasn't sure if Yasha was joking or not. "Ano…"

"We haven't got any weapons. Let's use some taijutsu, work on our flaws. What's your style of taijutsu Naruto-kun?"

"Um… punching?" Naruto offered, making the other boy facepalm.

"Fine then. Whoever holds the other down for three seconds wins. Or you can forfeit."

Naruto clambered to his feet. "I'm not gonna forfeit! Not even to you!"

Yasha stood up slowly. "Great. Don't hit in the crutch, either. It's not gentlemanly and it hurts for days."

The two faced off a few metres apart, Yasha relaxed with his hands in his pockets, Naruto with two fists raised and one leg back. '_Looks like boxing… you're not going to get any kicks out of that easily. I see what he means by punching style_.'

"Ready?" Yasha asked. "Go."

Naruto ran forward and threw a punch. Yasha grabbed the arm, pulled it forward, propelling him towards him, and then pulled it over his back, sending the other boy flat on his back, nearly winding him. Yasha wasn't fast enough to sit on him and press the advantage, so Naruto surprised him with a kick to the chest, making Yasha release his wrist and spring away to avoid it.

"You're fast," Naruto complimented as he stood up again. _'He got me down in less than two seconds?!'_

"Good improvising," Yasha returned and ran forward.

* * *

"I won!" Naruto whooped as they caught their breath.

"Three out of five matches. Yep, you won." Yasha offered him a water bottle.

"What sort of taijutsu style is that one?"

"I call it Slip Style. You let the opponent slip past you and use his weight against him, continue the momentum. The harder the opponent attacks, the worst you can hurt him."

"Ohhh." Naruto was impressed. "So you could fight against jounin with it?"

"Yes, since you wouldn't need to be equally strong to use it – but it's not complete, though, and it's not really something I want to use a lot. Plus, you'd need to be fast enough for the jounin to not escape you. It's completely defensive; if they don't attack you can't hurt them. I do have another style I use, but it's for serious enemies only."

"Can I see?" the blond begged.

"No, not unless you want a broken arm. I call it Snap Style. It's designed for maximum and permanent damage. I target the joints and internal organs."

"Oooh. That's cool, Yasha. What's my style really called?" Naruto asked enthusiastically.

Yasha gazed at him blankly. "You don't have a style, Naruto-kun. You're just improvising and making it up."

Naruto pouted at his blunt wording, but couldn't protest under that gaze.

"You still beat my Slip Style three times, though," Yasha reminded him. He knew the Uzumaki was dead-last and he himself hadn't done a bit of ninja training up until a week ago. If it wasn't for his bloodline, and being much more comfort with independent studying, he'd be worse than Naruto, and _he_ would become dead-last. And his bloodline was unusable around Naruto, at least until he knew what genin team he was on.

Right now he was E-Rank at a guess. If his genin team could harden themselves against the feeling of danger his bloodline released, Yasha would be _more_ than happy to use it and slam his own rank up by three.

And the enemies he knew were coming were multiple S and SS rank. Orochimaru was rated a solid S-class and he killed the Kazekage _and_ the Hokage. That left a _lot_ of room for improvement.

"Naruto, we need to get stronger."

"Yeah!" Naruto grinned happily.

"No." Yasha's deadly serious tone froze his friend up. "I mean we _need_ to get stronger. _Far_ stronger."

Naruto didn't respond, just gazing at his black-haired friend, wondering where the seriousness came from.

Yasha gazed out over the village and pointed. "Naruto, we need to be capable of moving from here to the other end of the village in a matter of seconds, and use techniques capable of destroying the whole thing in one shot. _That's_ the sort of strength I'm talking about."

"I'm not hurting the village," Naruto said firmly.

"It was an example, Naruto-kun," Yasha sighed and lost the seriousness. "You know I said about shadow techniques?"

"Yeah…" Naruto confirmed slowly.

"If you get any technique that says 'shadow' in it, even if it's an S-Rank or a forbidden technique, I need to know as quickly as possible. Okay?"

"…Sure." Naruto nodded decisively. "I won't let you down, Yasha-kun."

'_Great, he's sucked in. Now, next question. The academy teaches about three main ninjutsu: illusion clone, replacement, and transformation [otherwise known as Bunshin, Kawarimi, and Henge]. Taijutsu was taught but less of an issue; being average was hopefully doable for Yasha, and for Naruto, his high stamina would mean he could just take hits until his opponent wore out. Genjutsu was barely taught at all, just a couple methods of how to break it, and how to be observant enough to notice you're in one.'_

According to the scroll Naruto flopped at creating illusion clones. Yasha mentally noted to keep it that way. He knew Naruto had to fail the exam from Bunshin failure, although how and why he could pull off the Kage Bunshin [Shadow Clone] technique instead the instruction scroll neglected to say.

He wasn't sure if he could learn Rasengan early – the scroll only described it and that Jiraiya taught it to Naruto. Oh, and that it was the Fourth's technique. There was no details on how it was learnt, and recreating it was the epitome of suspiciousness; the Fourth died on the day Naruto was born, which would put Yasha as still pre-born or less than a year old. An odd idea, imagining yourself pre-born. No, Rasengan was out the window.

"Naruto, can you do Kawarimi?"

"Replacement? Yeah, but it's too obvious," Naruto replied glumly. "There's blue stuff thrown everywhere and it takes too long, dattebayo."

Yasha frowned. _'Blue stuff? That must be the chakra. Yikes, if it's __**visible**__, he must be releasing a __**lot**__ – and that's just the excess amount, forget the amount of invisible that's wasted as well. Having a Bijū in your body must throw off the chakra control to a huge extent – having the teachers deliberately sabotage your efforts to improve probably doesn't help either.'_

"It's good you can freely admit your own weaknesses. Now, you have problems with reading and writing, right?"

Naruto winced. "Yeah. I only know a bit about it. Iruka sometimes read off the board but I didn't want to tell him I couldn't read or write."

"Yeah, you're an idiot, but I can see why." Yasha smiled at the now glaring Naruto. "We're going to do half of the first textbook over the weekend. Hiragana and katakana, you'll need both syllabaries memorised properly by the end of the tomorrow; and we'll work on the ninja sign language. We'll do kanji as needed afterwards."

"That sounds hard." Naruto sighed.

"Yeah, but if we don't do it, you'll probably fail the entire exam. I'll be a bit ahead of you, but it'll be fine. We'll beat everyone. And if you pull off the two syllabaries _and_ ninja signs during the weekend, it's Ichiraku Ramen for supper on Sunday."

So motivated, the blond swiped the small syllabary book from Yasha's hand and stared hard at the first page.

* * *

Shisui watched closely. The two seemed like normal kids; if Yasha hadn't dropped the message scroll to him, he would have never noticed anything off.

He flickered in front of the two. "Genjutsu: Sharingan!"

Naruto slumped backwards, eyes glazed over. Yasha's eyes were glazed as well, before his focus returned, much to the jounin's shock.

Yasha shook his head slightly to clear the confusion that was on it, finally realising someone was in front of him. "Huh? Shisui-san?"

"You're going to give me answers," Shisui said calmly, drawing his tantō blade slowly, dragging out the sound of the steel on its scabbard. _'He's immune to genjutsu? He didn't consciously release it, no sign of him disturbing his chakra to reset the flow – it just seemed to resume its normal flow by itself. That's going to be make this difficult.'_


	11. The idiocy of humanity

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 11: The idiocy of humanity**_

* * *

**AN:** Wow. This chapter was a long time coming. What with being fired, turning 21, gaining inheritance, having my website hacked, losing my iPhone, and switching hosting company... all within _two weeks_... it was a bit hectic.  
My iPhone had part of this chapter, and it synced to somewhere I had to access through someone else, hence the delay.

This chapter's title is ironically appropriate to how I feel about several people involved during those two weeks.

While you're reading, pay attention to the chapter titles! They generally apply in more than one way to the chapter content. Take this one, for example: it has both Yasha's perspective, and Yasha's chapter-ending decision in mind.

* * *

Sasuke sighed. His brother had again put off shuriken training, so he was by himself, with a slightly throbbing forehead. Where had his brother got that stupid flicking idea from?

Grabbing another fistful, he shut his eyes and jumped into the air, flinging them at the targets. As he landed, his right foot slipped a bit, and he tutted to himself at the minor loss of balance.

All the targets were hit, but a few were a couple of rings from the bullseye. _'Nowhere near Itachi-niisan's level,' _he thought grimly as he grabbed another two fistfuls and focused again.

As he landed, this time not slipping but the accuracy was about the same, his mind drifted to Yasha again. What about him was scary? He didn't look strong – he was smart, that was obvious from his late entry to the class, and he gave off an aura no one in the class matched – heck, no one in the school matched. Not even any of the teachers felt that dangerous.

_'How do I know he's dangerous if I don't know what's dangerous about him?' _Sasuke considered. _'It's like he's a chained up animal, a danger with a leash on it.'_

His brain gave several analogies, but it just boiled down to: Yasha _felt_ scary. No real reason, just instinct. It perturbed Sasuke that he could be wary of someone without them doing anything remotely scary.

And he was hanging around with Naruto, the dead-last…

Sasuke grabbed another shuriken load and jumped again.

* * *

Jiraiya meanwhile was watching Shisui and Yasha having a 'friendly chat'. Shisui looked like he was going to cut the boy's head off if he didn't please him and Yasha looked like he wanted to run away very quickly. Jiraiya was too far away to work out what was being said, but Yasha seemed very defensive while Shisui was being uncommonly aggressive (drawing his tantō on a child? Really?).

Yasha wasn't in danger of being injured, though, not until Shisui at least took him somewhere outside the village. That was when the boy should worry; the friendly chat could escalate to full interrogation tactics. Jiraiya hadn't been told Yasha was accepted into the village, but because he was still here the day after the T&amp;I date, that was probably the case. _'Why is Shisui talking with him __**now**__, though? Yasha delivered a message to Shisui two days ago, and he couldn't have escaped him then. Shisui is probably the fastest in the village. Maybe the scroll had a decision and he was given a bit of time to respond to it… but then why that show of aggression?_

_'There's no way Yasha would have delivered a threat to Shisui, right? No idiot of a commander would risk the only person with Death Release.'_

As Jiraiya watched, Shisui re-sheathed the tantō, body-flickering away on his own, and Naruto woke up with a start. Yasha turned to him and said something, causing Naruto to fixate on his book like it was going out of style.

* * *

Naruto studied the book hard, and showed some initiative by asking Yasha to test him after half an hour. Despite that, though, he still had only memorised six out of the forty-seven syllables in the Hiragana syllabary. Yasha instead got him to write down the letters constantly, while Yasha himself read the first school textbook – first slowly, absorbing whatever his subconscious wanted, then quickly, skimming and seeing what he couldn't recall from the first read.

The sun's rays were inviting but after a while Yasha wished it would stop barbequing his skin to medium rare. The clouds should stop being lazy and do their job properly. There was only so much solar scorching he could take. Still, tans were rather attractive, so he stuck at it, albeit moving around a little to ensure an even-ish tan.

"Yasha-kun," Naruto eventually spoke up, having mastered half an syllabary and drawing the second one through aching fingers.

Yasha was somewhat surprised he had been so subdued. He could tell Naruto was in pain from the hours of near-constant writing, but if he wouldn't complain, Yasha wouldn't tell him to stop. "Yeah, Naruto?"

"Do you like it up here?"

Yasha looked out over the peaceful village. "I suppose. It's nice to see what you're protecting."

Although mostly it was nice to see anyone who approached before they got close. Pre-warning like that was very relaxing. Although with Shunshin and a clear ramp up the monument, they could get from the bottom to the top in seconds. Less if they walked up the side of the cliff… was that possible with Shunshin?

Naruto made a noncommittal sound. "I like it, especially when it's dark. You can see people make the world light."

"You're a hopeless romantic, Naruto-kun…"

Naruto snorted. It was the first time anyone had called him that.

Yasha pondered as his eyes took a far-away expression. "I like it when the world stays dark. How it would be if people weren't here. It's more natural."

"But if there weren't people, there wouldn't be ramen, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed, expecting to fully convince Yasha with that argument.

Yasha grinned, abandoning the point. "And in the end, ramen is everything."

"Hai!" Naruto shouted in agreement, his triumphant grin faltering as the other boy began to snicker.

"Well, can't argue about that. I'm still not sure if the world would be better with no people or with them," Yasha thought out loud.

"Like what? There wouldn't be anything!"

"Exactly. Peaceful. Unlike you noisy humans."

"I'm not noisy, dattebayo!"

Yasha fixed him with another blank stare, watching his anger fade into realisation.

"Oh," Naruto said quietly, then his indignation returned full force. "Well that's because you made me noisy, dattebayo!"

Yasha started laughing. "And for that lie, you're having ration bars for supper!"

"NOOOO!" Naruto shrieked in horror.

Yasha watched the antics while internally deciding to make ration bars omnipresent in Naruto's life.

* * *

After two hours of studying, he opted to take a break – Naruto had done far better and had memorised about thirty-three, but the memory seemed a bit shaky. Not to worry; Yasha had once read how the human brain memorised best and when to review:

Given an exam, you should revise a month before, a week before, and a day before. Anything extra would be near-pointless and your brain wouldn't pick up the information reliably.

So he left Naruto on it, he gulped down a bottle of water (disappointingly warm despite being in the shade), and laid back, shutting his eyes against the sun's glare.

It wasn't the first time he'd done this, what with the resets at all. The second reset, where Yasha had come clean to the Hokage, had failed to work – every disaster happened as usual. The Uchiha massacre went through despite warning about Danzō to Shisui.

And when Yasha warned him about the invasion, Orochimaru had spies in the village deep enough to catch it and call it off. The calling off of the invasion saved mass lives, but left the future questionable, and sure enough Orochimaru had plans to gather even more forces and move in with a second invasion, at the point Zack sent him back again.

Humans were such idiots, fighting their petty wars. Orochimaru didn't even have a _reason_ to; okay, his experiments were not appreciated as they were on the darker side of the ethical line, and that had led to his exile, but was it worth hundreds of lives just to show up his teacher and his home town?

Apparently for him, and his underlings didn't even question what benefits it had (which were zero). Originally what had happened with Orochy was his arms sealed and the Third dying valiantly in battle. _'Geez, that guy just died in every reset. Still, better that than death from old age or illness, I guess,'_ Yasha thought.

So if Orochy was serious about attacking, he'd keep fighting and not quit, despite the loss of use of his jutsu: okay, he had summoning seals inside his body and on his arms, and apparently that could be used to summon big-ass snakes. He could've just summoned more with what chakra he had left, and let his guard team start wasting the villagers as well. But he ran for it. Clearly he was petrified of death, the big wuss. That also explained his obsession with gaining more power; mortality is never more apparent than when you're in pain.

Still, pretty much every Strong person was obsessed with trying to gain more power. As soon as you got Very Strong and few people were a match – the few who _were_ kind of a match ruined your Very Strong position. So you aimed for Extremely Strong, hoping to reach Unmatchable, but it never really happened. Just drink too much alcohol, fall into a deep sleep, and a retarded kid with a knife could kill you; Unmatchable, Very Strong, or whatever rank people labelled you, every human had vulnerabilities.

Yasha could be unconscious and the darkness would preserve him, healing minor injuries and counter-attacking whoever attacked him without him even thinking about it. Sure, he wasn't _invincible_, but the more darkness he gathered, the better his regeneration would be. There was no explanation on how the regeneration worked; Yasha wondered if the darkness was small enough to physically re-join the skin and move the cut-off flesh back particle at a time, or if they somehow stimulated the existing cells to regrow and ate the misplaced ones? It would be fascinating to see just how small the darkness was.

But where was he? Oh yes, idiot humans, the reason he was here, and the reason behind everything. Cut an Iwa, a Suna, a Konoha shinobi, they'll all bleed the same. Give them an adorable little sister, they'll love her the same. Starve them in a famine, they'll all die the same.

But this simple truth was lost; the countries would wipe each other out over land.

Land? LAND?! Land didn't give a crap who walked on top of it. It didn't hate upon those with an Iwa background. Fight all you want, the amount of land is still the same. The plants you plant grow the same. Idiots fighting over things that were nature's, not theirs.

Conflict was very much alive, though. It was the reason Yasha had to be thrown back in time repetitively. He was kind of relieved this was only the second time; if it were possible to have more than three resets, and this had been the fourth try, Yasha might have considered not doing anything. Zack, whoever he was, could just shut up; any idiots that couldn't be saved after three completely separate tries couldn't be saved at all.

Naruto though, he was a shining light, stepping into the darkness of the ninja way. His childishness was surprisingly desirable the more Yasha was around it. Don't get him wrong, he didn't swing that way, but it was so _right_ to be without worry and fear. If only humans hadn't screwed around with each other and created their own perpetual spiral of hate and fear, they could all live with the _giving_ form of love.

Even if there had been no wars, no ninjas, you can bet your favourite elbow there would be intimidation and fear, and it'd be the same problem. All it took was someone a bit darker, killing hundreds, and you'd get a hundred angry revengers, rousing up an army of a thousand angry people against the darker person-fearing other army. All it took was intimidation and you could control people.

Some part of Yasha liked it that way; Yasha inspired fear by just his presence. His bloodline made him scary, made him deadly. In a way, he was the only person who could kill without worrying about nature; nature _itself_ had given him one of the most deadly bloodlines to exist, cursed as it may be.

Ninjas enjoyed their doujutsu and ninjutsu, but he held control over the Piranhas of the Air. Hmm, that sounded pretty good.

Anyway, he was _naturally_ inclined towards killing. Why pretend it was unnatural for him?

Still, humans were idiots. Killing over something ambiguous and not really theirs to take or own. They didn't realise their own act of superiority (e.g. "Iwa is lesser than Konoha 'cos I'm from Konoha") inspired dehumanising. You had to ignore the fact that person was a human to kill them. Only true psychopaths could kill knowing that person had a family, had goals, hopes, dreams, desires, dislikes, talents.

Dehumanising went like this:

Kill Target X. Easy; you wouldn't lose sleep or question yourself.

Kill Person X. Getting a bit harder, you now have to acknowledge they are a person, from the same species as you.

Kill Person X, an enemy ninja. Hmm, now it's mildly easier again.

Kill Person X, an enemy ninja, forced into that role due to his dying mother; he wanted to be a violinist but was forced to abandon that when his father died and his mother fell sick from grief. He decided to be a ninja as it paid a lot of money, although he hated killing and ninjutsu in general. Every other thought is towards his mother.

Ouch. Now killing _that_ is hard. Even if you knew he had life insurance or the village would take care of his mother, you still wouldn't want to do it. It was too cruel.

So you dehumanise the enemy. They're no longer human to you, so you can be inhumane to them. And like the idiots humans are, they don't even notice they're doing it. Losing humanity to act like other humans; how bizarre is that? You had to avoid being humane to become like one of the humans.

Yasha had decided he was not human.

It wasn't an adjective he desired for himself – the species was filled with idiots obsessed with abandoning. He wasn't _superior_, since that was just another human problem, he just didn't put himself with the same ballpark as the other humans.

He liked the idea of being deadly, but killing was a bit too permanent for him. There were resurrection techniques, but they all required sacrifices of alive people, which just moved the problem of dead guy to another person. You could spout bullshit as to why enemy ninjas were good sacrifices for your dead family members, but it was just fooling yourself.

But still, knowing that Yasha could kill you as easily as look at you, would persuade most people to stop their battles instantly upon his arrival. Yasha grinned to himself as he imagined it; a fierce battle going on, fireballs and water techniques flying everywhere, then a Someone arrives and the two armies abandon ship frantically while the Someone calmly sips some tea he brought along.

Definitely something he desired. Egotistical, but eh, a goal was a goal. If he could stop wars just by being on one of the sides, he'd get himself to war-stopping power without a second thought.

Pacifism. In this day's ninja age, everyone who was a pacifist _and_ a ninja, earned Yasha's respect. And there was no one he had more respect for than Uchiha Itachi. Shisui was a close second.

Civilians could fuss about being a pacifist, but if someone could blow you over with a small wind technique, your opinion on how power should be used isn't worth crap. It just amounts to a five-year-old whining about not getting ice cream. Just don't bother.

But those who _had_ power and yet remained pacifists: they were undoubtedly people to respect, holding onto their morals and intelligence despite the madness of battle, fighting for the greater good only. They recognised the unfortunate nature of being surrounded by warmongering nations, and bore with it, doing their duty, protecting their families, and while not fighting… their minds were on getting the fighting to stop.

Truly admirable. Supposedly, the Third Hokage was one of those, but Yasha's respect for him waned when 'Danzō' was the only person who knew when to use force to retain peace, and reacted in time to stop the coup. A brutal decision, but sometimes, not fighting just doesn't work; pacifist warriors have to be able to make tough decisions. Danzō was premature, though, and may have forced the Uchiha's hand through Root's subtle influencing.

And Itachi had to cut down his own father, who was head of the coup; and his own mother, who would side with his father; the adults, perverted by the Uchiha pride; and the children, otherwise cast into darkness by hatred of who made them orphans.

And he may have killed his closest friend as well – but that seemed unlikely now that Yasha thought about it. If anything, Shisui would have been _saved_ by Itachi, since he was also against the coup. Shisui might not have agreed with Itachi's slaughtering, but he wouldn't have _hated_ him for it. He had no family left, as far as Yasha knew; there was no strong ties to cause hate for his best friend.

Now, why Itachi left Sasuke, was somewhat bizarre. Supposedly, a prodigy professing insanity could only work if you had a good amount of proof. If Itachi had left Sasuke _and_ the rest of the kids, it would have been too humane, as revolting as that thought path was. Itachi had to kill as much feeling as possible to act like he was a genuine psychopath. He was lucky people let him get away with leaving Sasuke without raising questions as to if he _had_ genuinely gone insane. If he had left the kids, it would have been too obvious that there was a bigger story than insanity.

Yasha sat up from where he was lying in the sun. "Naruto, keep on studying and working on it, I'm going to go for a walk."

Luckily Naruto didn't protest. He looked up at Yasha for a brief moment, then just glanced back down and continued writing, his hand beginning to ache.

Yasha knew Itachi would flee the village if he did have to do the massacre again. The person he most respected would leave, and probably wouldn't cross paths with him again. And Yasha had just decided he wanted an autograph from the clan slaughterer.

* * *

**AN:** Yasha, no. Yasha, _staaahhhppp_.  
For all his brilliance, he's still a kid.


	12. Respectful actions

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 12: Respectful actions**_

* * *

**AN:** I was recently fired as per last AN note… and I've just realised… including this chapter…  
I've written so much of the fanfic after being fired, only _**71 out of 149 pages**_ have been published.  
So if I get motivated to post extra… I've got quite a bit of breathing space!  
(I'm still adding onto it though. Motivation is a fickle beast.)  
Triple dose of how the chapter name applies to the chapter content this time. Can you spot them all?

* * *

Yasha looked like an Uchiha, so getting into the compound was uncontested. He strolled around idly, and disinterestedly glanced over at the crowd. Old guy, overweight middle-aged guy, group of four women, two jounin males, pregnant lady, adult male with two kids…

_'Hold on… pregnant lady?'_

Yep. Black hair, light green maternity dress, heavily pregnant, carrying a heavy-looking bag. Looking at her a bit harder, Yasha started getting an idea, but before it fully developed, he strode over and offered to help with her bag.

From the conversation he started, he found out she was due in a few months, two weeks prior to the Uchiha coup date.

_'Can I rescue her baby from under Itachi's nose?'_

Her husband and the woman herself (she was called Agami Uchiha, for what that was worth), were both going to be killed, so that left Yasha with a clear conscience should he have to kill them to kidnap/rescue their baby.

He opted to investigate the rest of the Uchiha's pregnancy ward. Six due before the massacre, and one due a week after; possible for it to be delivered early… and one unfortunate one due three weeks afterwards. There was no way he could save that one. Murder was getting someone alive and killing them; killing someone who was dead already (by time's standards) wasn't murder.

Two had chuunin parents, one had jounin. The rest were civilian. So, assuming they could be bypassed, he could extract up to ten kids – including already born, very young kids (he picked a year and a half or younger), who wouldn't have the memory to remember they were Uchiha and get hate-ified for Itachi, with any luck.

He couldn't take care of them permanently, since any C-class mission would be outside the village for days – but if he did take out the kids, they'd have to go to a different house. Even if Naruto stayed quiet about them, the babies wouldn't be quiet.

And they'd have to be placed in the orphanage eventually, but not immediately; black-haired, black-eyed kids appearing in orphanages at the same time as the Uchiha massacre – someone would notice. He'd have to place them in Konoha orphanages, if they ever were to be fighters, or if he wanted to keep a close eye on them… and Yasha thought it'd be useless to just dissipate the Sharingan away, even with Sasuke carrying on the legacy.

Babies were okay, Yasha didn't dislike them generally, but they were a _ton_ of work. Yasha had come from an orphanage originally, and knew that even two-year-olds were hard to be around for a few hours. Babies were worse and needed care every couple of hours. Then again, if he was negligent and they died, they were going to be dead anyway – so the guilt would be minimal.

But, if Yasha rescued them, he would have a mini army in a few years. _'My own little minions. Mwahaha. Okay, so I'm kind of thinking like Danzō… I'm rather cold, treating the massacre of hundreds as a joke and a way to make profit… that should probably worry me, but it doesn't. It only vaguely interests me.'_

Yasha sauntered towards the house for Itachi (or Fugaku, he supposed), after asking for directions. No one looked twice at him; he was too similar in looks to an Uchiha, and anyone checking for intruders could tell there was no Henge in use. Convenient for him, the one part of his genes that had proved useful.

As a separate thought tangent, he realised he might be able to scare off enemies by applying a genjutsu that made them think he had just activated the Sharingan. Food for thought.

He knocked on the clan head's house's front door, but got no response. On impulse, he tried opening it anyway, but it was locked. _'Duh. Of course it is.'_

He gazed up at the ajar window on the side – he could reach that if he got on the roof nearby… a souvenir from Itachi's room would be okay for his reminiscence once Itachi had gone… maybe. And slightly less suspicious than asking an ANBU, who did mostly hidden operations only, for his autograph.

A climb up, maybe some bins were near the side of the building…

Then Yasha caught himself. _'No. Damn no. Don't be a damn idiot. This is a damn ANBU's house, and the damn head of the damn elite police force of a damn doujutsu-damn-wielding clan. And you think you can break in? Just stop while you're ahead, baka.'_

Yasha turned around and strode off, tutting at himself and his own arrogance. _'Okay, you got into the village, but you didn't do that undetected as you thought, right? So you can't detect if you're being monitored. And right now you're not being monitored? Please. If the fact you're an outsider doesn't get you monitored, and if your bloodline doesn't, the fact you're outside the Uchiha head's house and trying to break in will. Baka.'_

He sighed, but didn't see a way to contact Itachi as an ANBU – it'd be worrying if there was a way to contact anonymous people – so opted to stride back out the compound into the village. He stopped as he realised if he was being monitored, then his casual checking out of all the pregnant Uchiha ladies must have been noticed. Best to cover it up with some investigation of some pregnant non-Uchiha civilians, as well.

Yasha spent about an hour doing that, as well; making idle chat with other pregnant ladies. He made sure to mention he had a soft spot for babies often, but didn't raise his voice or anything. He pondered on the possibility of rescuing the babies while he strode around between the conversations… it was hard to achieve at best, and he could lose his life if Itachi found him out.

Maybe he could offer to babysit for all of the women that night? They wouldn't chat to each other about who was babysitting for them straight off the bat. That would give him a reason for being in there and around their kids. And if he offered to all of them separately, he could run off with each baby individually, then move to the next house, say he was there to babysit, and so on. It would be unlikely to work without hiccups, but for the most part…

Maybe a timed genjutsu could be applied to the mothers to bring the babies out to Yasha and then send them back into the clan compound. It was a bit underhanded to trick mothers, not to mention the fact that anyone with the Sharingan would spot it, but the mothers would understand in the end.

It all depended on him getting his skills up to par. If he still didn't have the skill to save anyone, that was the future's default state anyway, so he wouldn't lose sleep over it.

He hadn't seen a trace of a tail, but he knew better. It was sheer fluke (and due to the fact he was mostly invisible, and that lowered their caution) that he ever heard the subtle sound of the ANBU during his entry through the village. And he thought he had lost them with explosive tags, but clearly from the Hokage's "we've stalked you everywhere, we see all" statement, even that much had been wishful thinking.

It was a definite no-no to using his bloodline techniques to steal the babies. Firstly, the darkness cloak wrapped around his skin, extending over a baby might be impossible. Second, babies as well as adults detected the danger emitted by the cloak; even the gate guards, idiot enough to abandon their post for one explosion, noticed it originally. The babies would not be happy to have that near them, and knocking babies out wasn't something you could learn from a textbook. Third, the darkness could very well munch on the babies, which would be decidedly unhelpful.

Without his bloodline, Yasha was a low E-Rank. He had only known ninjutsu for a week or so. Maybe the whole kidnapping idea was impossible covertly. Unless he could discover some branch of his bloodline that served as genjutsu or proper invisibility. The scroll didn't mention any more bloodline techniques than the cloak, the self-marking, the 'light-switch', and that he could naturally see at night due to the darkness particles in his eyes translating it for him.

Hmm. Maybe that was why people didn't like him – the low exposure of darkness particles in his pupils was detectable subconsciously?

And the 'light-switch' technique hadn't been too hard, just creating a chakra string and maintaining it for a while. Maybe he could extend that, to turn out all the lights in a street at once using multiple strings.

Not that it would affect the Sharingan a huge amount to be hit with darkness, but for most opponents it'd be an irritant, or at least a good distraction. Sharingan or not, pupils had to dilate.

Could he create a box outline of the darkness particles around someone? He could already make a chakra string in the air and a circular sheet on the ground, albeit briefly. It would horrify any ninja to be caught in an unbreachable barrier that reeked of danger.

And all he had to do would be move the boxes inward, shrinking it until nothing alive was left inside. Even a shunshin wouldn't escape it; body flickers were just very fast movement, after all, and the darkness could just stick to whatever hit them, like they normally did. Although maybe a group of Kage Bunshin body-flickering outwards to make a sizable hole in the box would work? Depended how fast the particles chose to munch.

The way Yasha released his chakra was the same way the darkness went to. He made a box, they'd make a box. If he learnt excellent chakra control, his control over them would be excellent as well.

Genjutsu and chakra control, definitely max priority now. And if possible, a way to control the darkness so his chakra could be released without them.

It was great to scare people, but if he made an illusion clone and the darkness filled it, the effect would be horrifying and more importantly, the darkness would completely be outside his control once the illusion ended. Plus, with the charka dissipating, it would leave a silhouette of him, literally a standing shadow (until the darkness merged into nearby shadows).

Maybe with use of Kage Bunshin, he could move all of the darkness away from him. It would reduce the scary effect quite well. Or he could retain it and use a Kage Bunshin to be sociable.

Something to think about. His bloodline had so many uses if he could control it properly with chakra. If he couldn't, he'd be useless at stealth, useless at any non-fatal targeting, and wouldn't be able to use anything in spars, since any ninjutsu would have darkness taints, leading to KI leaks, basically becoming a fatal technique for whoever he sparred with, and a nice beacon to let any enemies know where he was.

Still grumbling about his luck, he came across one of his classmates. Hinata, and the embarrassment of fainting from embarrassment the day before was apparently still potent. She blushed as she saw him sauntering towards her.

"Heyo, Hinata-chan," he greeted cordially.

"Oh-oh-ohaiyo, Ya-Yasha-kun."

Yasha's eye twitched. That much stammering in two word sentences. He decided to ignore it; it'd just get worse if he pointed it out. "Are you with your family?"

"Ha-hai."

"Hinata-sama, who is this?" A creepy-eyed man glared down at Yasha, stepping just in front of her protectively.

"Th-th-this is my cla-classmate, Ya-Yasha-kun," Hinata stuttered, clearly intimidated by her protector's posture.

"Ohaiyo, Hyuuga-san." Yasha bowed in greeting to the somewhat nondescript Hyuuga.

The Hyuuga clan was mostly stuck up nobles, but with those guys it was best to make a good impression, it could prove useful later; while a bad impression in noble society stuck around like a tumour.

Yasha quickly worked out he hadn't actually got anything to say to Hinata other than winding her up about her attachment to Naruto, which wouldn't gain the adult's favour. So time for some sucking up. "I'm new to the village, but I have heard rumours of the Hyuuga's exceptional taijutsu style. But I won't keep you; I will see you later, Hinata-chan."

The adult was somewhat surprised as he moved off. The boy had been overflowing with politeness, but concise. His movements held some knowledge of formality but were unpractised.

The adult's enforced nobility wavered for a bit as he remembered Yasha was an object of interest around the clan. Rumours of his presence in the Uchiha compound and his reputation as the 'KI alarm clock' had reached the Hyuuga head, Hiashi, and he had informed the clan he wanted more information, but not to pry for it.

As the adult had thought that, Yasha had strode too far away to restart the conversation, and the Hyuuga guard wasn't particularly keen on having to give a longer word-for-word report later anyway. Maybe next time.

* * *

Yasha meandered on, idly deciding to resume his normal duties. He did briefly consider attempting to expose any ANBU following him, but opted against it; he had no qualities that outmatched them, including stealth and tracking, and it would just make them jumpy.

Now, the question of Danzō's Root. From what the scroll said it was an illegal offshoot of ANBU that reported to Danzō; most of the trainings involved suppression and removal of emotions. Danzō no doubt considered emotions a weakness – and in a way, Yasha agreed: emotions exaggerated a guess into an assumption, and drew actions because of it.

You guessed that you were lucky today, and then you assumed the feeling affected the slot machines, and then you played and lost cash. You guessed an ambiguous statement was an insult, then you assumed your honour was tainted, and you started a fight that wasn't really necessary.

If Yasha went through with the baby rescue idea, the Hokage would assume he was becoming another Danzō, attempting to build his own force for a coup. Yasha had no interest in taking over the village. He liked it the way it was, and paperwork would be in the truckload, with the number of people, resources, events and politics that had to be juggled.

Could he become a Hokage? Maybe. It was doable, given enough effort. If anything, Naruto had proved that. Naruto's original life, before the resets, had bought him up to S-Rank by age 17, although it was mostly due to his massive chakra reserves than a huge array of skills. In genjutsu he was still awful despite his rank. The scroll stated the current Hokage, the Fifth, had wanted to elect him next.

Yet Naruto was only known for two 'styles' of fighting: Rasengan and Shadow Clone. The rest were just add-ons to those techniques – albeit strong ones.

Yasha wondered just how much the darkness could do. He knew every shadow held some tiny, tiny amount of the particles. When they were in concentrated amounts, it produced the smell of death that experienced ninjas would be familiar with. But they didn't tend to eat a lot, just nibbling at dead skin.

It was odd – the darkness wouldn't eat a living, moving being, and would hesitate and wait until enough of the particles were there – but a dead body would be nibbled on idly. You wouldn't notice normally, if it was observed it'd be like the watched pot idiom, you'd never see it boil. You'd just associate it with the maggots and insects that gathered there anyway, but it was the darkness that broke down the body before those insects could work at it.

At least, that was his hypothesis. He didn't doubt the insects could cope on their own.

Zack knew a surprising amount of information about Yasha's bloodline, but that was taken into account Yasha originally knew nothing, and supposedly only one person in the world had it at any one time. In actual fact there was only the basics outlined in the scrolls; the theories about how the darkness worked was supplied by future Yasha and held a lot of question marks.

It was _just_ like him to raise more questions than answers; Yasha was the type who preferred to consider every option, even unlikely ones. Unfortunately, with the lack of information he had, it lead to a practical jungle of hypothesises and possibilities. Unfortunately he couldn't experiment without releasing KI levels that were noticeable by chuunin (e.g. the gate guards) and could knock out civilians at short range if he put some hatred into it, judging from his first night in Konoha.

And it had knocked out Naruto, but that was hardly surprising, he was a civilian child, and already cowering.

How did his telepathy work? The darkness inside their skull? They could probably sneak in if there was a tiniest gap, and sitting on living meat and preserving it was rather on their agenda, even if it took decades to cash in on it.

Surely if Yasha could fiddle with telepathy, that affected the receiver's brainwaves, directly causing thoughts that made an illusion of the other person's voice in his head, then genjutsu would be easy to apply. Hell, if the darkness was enforcing it, the genjutsu might be unreleasable. They forced Yasha's brain out of genjutsu applied to him.

It seemed a bit _too_ convenient, though. Darkness inside the brain? Okay, they were so tiny they could probably waltz in through the tear duct or be absorbed through the stomach's walls into the bloodstream… but you'd think it would be noticed somehow if _everyone_ had it.

But that was the only explanation as to how his telepathy worked. It didn't require physically touching, so that implied Yasha's mere presence caused the darkness to pre-emptively hide in the nearby people's brains – Yasha cringed at that suggestion – or the darkness just naturally existed/lodged there in every person for some reason.

Huh. Either way, his telepathy was short range. He couldn't be certain if that was due to his lack of chakra and thus darkness control petering his manipulating out after a few metres, or if it _was_ his presence that made it possible to do it, and more specifically his _nearby_ presence.

Or it could be an unrelated jutsu that had nothing to do with his bloodline or the little parasites at all. It wasn't impossible to have two bloodlines, or for Zack to just teach him the seals and theory for a Hiden Yamanaka technique and fail to mention it wasn't related.

Still, reading thoughts had to be a lot easier than changing thoughts, right? The precision required of genjutsu was very high; then again the requirements for reading thoughts weren't discussed in that Academy textbook he had just read. His telepathy just required hand seals and a mental _push_ in the right direction; then their inner voice simply spoke in his head. He made barely any effort after that to retain the connection or receive thoughts, it just _worked_.

Yasha had to compare with the Yamanaka clan's techniques at some point. If they had to put in constant effort to use mind control, it proved his technique involved more of the darkness' assistance than his own thoughts. And he had to compare with the Nara clan: did they have dark chakra from constant use of shadow techniques? Or did they somehow release light at the same time they released dark?

In the main part of the Konoha village, he found a couple of pregnant women there and talked to them as well, before slightly loudly stating 'to himself' after the last woman was out of earshot: "Well, that's enough sappy crap, time to get back to work."

Had to maintain appearances, plus he _was_ kinda sick of the mushy, hormone-heightened happiness of the expectant mothers. He saw enough happy feelings from Naruto, thanks.

* * *

Iruka frowned as he paid for some vegetables, his mind elsewhere. He had thought about it most of the day, but his brain was _still_ divided on whether his trust of Yasha was a good idea.

He had spotted him chatting amiably with a pregnant civilian a while ago, and had listened in (courtesy of a bit of chakra focus to his ears), but it just seemed Yasha was keen on babies. That was a bizarre revelation, it seemed quite contrary to his clear-cut, brutal personality.

It had only increased his internal argument, though. The jury was still out on that one.

Iruka saw no trace of Naruto, though. That raised more questions. Iruka wasn't too fond of the blond brat, but seeing the emotions for the village flow off him yesterday had sealed what remained of his anger at the Kyuubi's container. And it was true that they had both been made orphans by the same Bijū. Having considered it, Iruka had lost all ability to justify his hatred for Naruto.

But that still left a brattish troublemaker, so…

* * *

After he had spent an hour wandering around chatting to random pregnant and new mothers, there had been no trace of anyone watching the entire time, and it miffed Yasha even though he knew it made sense he wouldn't be able to pick up on them. Either they were there, and his detection skills weren't ANBU level (big surprise), or they weren't, and he just wasted an hour. So he was a bit frustrated when he eventually went for lunch – grabbing two large store bento and wandering back to the Hokage monument.

"Wow, still at it, Naruto?"

The blond looked up, squinting as the prolonged sun exposure had temporarily lost most of his colour perception. His hand hurt a lot. "Yeah. Well, you asked me too, Yasha-kun."

Yasha sat down with a thump and handed over the box, watching the other boy devour it greedily in a kind of daze. Having people listen to what you said, just because it was _you_ who said it, was…

…well…

**…****_awesome_****.**

* * *

**AN:** The next chapter looks double the length of this one.  
Now, because I said it… review!  
Or the next chapter will come out in August! _Mwa ha ha ha_…_ cough_…_urk x_x_


	13. Unlucky choices

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 13: Unlucky choices**_

* * *

**AN:** You guys write as many reviews as I do. Keep that up and there'll be character death. Seriously.

* * *

Yasha read the second textbook – a book on stretching, camping, staying cool and hot, recognising common sicknesses, and treating minor injuries and sicknesses. Basically outdoor survival.

Prior to bento, Naruto had ploughed through the full Hiragana syllabary like a trooper. Yasha wrote down several sentences for him to read out, then tested him by saying something and having him write it (he did so with a suppressed wince that Yasha tactfully ignored).

The blond was accurate now, only making a couple of mistakes. Ah, the benefits of doing something with a mental maturity years further than normal education did; starting a first-year textbook intended for someone four years younger. Yasha tossed him a small Hiragana-only storybook for kids, hiding his grin as Naruto noticed how childishly it was written, with big colourful graphics, and shot him an indignant glare.

Blackmail material later, maybe…

Yasha didn't think Naruto was stupid. He couldn't really calculate his friend's intelligence this early. His education scores was crap, but then his teacher's attitudes towards him was crap. His ability to socialise was crap, but then the society he was in treated him like crap.

His pranks were hilariously immature, but he was aiming for getting attention, which people his age needed, but didn't usually lack to the extent he did. Unfortunately, without the pranks, the attention he got was negative. So he just gave them a reason to hate him, and thereby sheltered himself from the horrifically true idea that people didn't like him. It distracted the image of Kyuubi in boy form to mischievous pranking boy.

"Read it out loud," Yasha ordered, scooting beside him close enough to read over his shoulder.

Naruto's face scrunched up, clearly not enthusiastic about reading something that read like it was meant for six-year-olds. He opened his mouth to protest, but Yasha just blankly stared at him, watching the indignity at the task fade away in his unflinching gaze.

"Hai," Naruto muttered so quietly Yasha barely heard it. "You're scary, Yasha-san."

Yasha smirked. "My techniques are called Death Release for a reason."

"They are?!" Naruto's face brightened up in awe.

Yasha was about to say no, but paused for thought. That name… actually made sense. Whenever something died, these black things were around. And too much of the black things, caused death. Death Release was a very good name. "I guess. So read it or I'll seriously get my insects to chew your favourite ear off. "

* * *

In total, Yasha had Jiraiya, Shisui, the Third via a team of ANBU, most of the clan heads via their members, and a few bored jounin including Kakashi on his case. And the boy could detect none of them.

Kakashi had been told he'll be sent off ANBU for a team of genin, including his Sensei's son. He knew it was his duty but he wasn't ready; he was unwillingly glad Naruto had been making such slow progress. Some selfish part of him wanted Naruto to just find someone else to teach him, to give up on being a ninja even. It hurt to look at him.

Then Yasha had started to teach him, and Kakashi aborted his desire for another teacher. Yasha hadn't done anything hostile to Naruto – bar his act with Iruka, perhaps – but there were a few worrying things.

Yasha was obviously first place in Naruto's life already. It was too quick for Kakashi's liking. He had also begun to wonder how experienced Yasha was with manipulating people after hearing his speech on it the night before. So far, his ability to manipulate was nearly expert. But his bodily performance and chakra capacity didn't match up.

He wasn't a Root member – despite Kakashi lowering his chakra and stealth ability to about chuunin-level, there had been nothing to indicate Yasha had detected him. Danzō wouldn't risk sending someone so inexperienced. His ability was genin or less, then, it certainly wasn't a problem with his observation – he was constantly glancing around for an observer, but a jounin would know without looking. His taijutsu forms were two new styles, but they weren't developed and he lost more times than won. If this was an act, he was incredibly good at it.

Jiraiya had eventually wandered off, the pregnant ladies Yasha was talking to turning him off. Kakashi kept an eye on Yasha via a shadow clone but after a full day of the two boys just studying books on the Hokage monument he soon concluded that the equally bored ANBU team would suffice.

Odd he was keen on babies so much, but it wasn't the weirdest personality trait. Maito Gai, with his Youth, Anko with her dango, Naruto with his ramen…

Kakashi briefly wondered what Yasha would look like in green spandex before he dove back into the safety of his Icha Icha. _'Oh my, Ryui-chan is cheating on Karota-kun!'_

* * *

A drip of wax hit the damp concrete, fizzing as it hardened into a wad.

Orochimaru scowled down at the handwritten reports, his mind working rapidly. A new entry to Konoha and he had a new bloodline, something even the Snake Sannin hadn't heard rumours of before, one that had woken up nearly every spy on the village at the same time. That kind of level of technique was most _intriguing_… and it was just a child. Kabuto would be back in the village come nightfall with preliminary reports on the Master Sage.

Orochimaru considered – investigate the Master Sage or the suspicious newcomer 'Yasha'? His spies had been lightly rewarded for the sparse information – enough to spur them into investigating more.

A flesh-eating shadow technique – rumoured impossibly small carnivorous bugs. Perhaps a mutated offshoot of the Aburame or Kamizuru clans. There was gossips of telepathy being used as well. Assuming the two were connected (and indeed both true)… the possibilities were _most_ captivating.

It was strange, though, this was yet another completely new branch of ninja techniques – first the Master Sage, now this Yasha.

Combine both those and the Sharingan – Orochimaru almost salivated at the thought. Each of those three individually held a lot of potential. There was no indicator about the age of the Master Sage, but that wasn't a concern. Summons took a lot of chakra and supposedly, without having met the summons, they couldn't be called. It was even possible the Master Sage had no summons he or she could use at all, if he hadn't met any – and didn't have the chakra to summon them.

It was the basis of the Summoning Technique: you had to know what your chakra was calling out for. And even then, it could be refused by the target and a different summon sent instead.

Maybe the prerequisite to being a Master Sage was just signing a contract scroll… or maybe he could just 'convince' the current one to hand his scroll over…

But Yasha was interesting. Giving off levels of KI or something similar that most of the town felt, even civilians. _'That amount of power…'_

Orochimaru gazed down at the picture of the boy in front of him, snapped with half of a blond boy he was apparently good friends with at a shop they were visiting.

_'He's young but his name is already well known among the Jounin from the area of effect the psychic pressure of his techniques have,'_ he read from the report, repetitively going over the phrase in his head as he weighed up his options.

* * *

Shino had found a dead kikaichu bug on the classroom floor, under Yasha's chair. He picked it up, letting another bug crawl onto it for analysis.

**_'Death'_** was all the other bug reported from it. The pheromones were typical with rapid death, in a human it'd be called multiple organ failure, but the bugs weren't complex enough to warrant organs. The kikaichu had simply shut down.

Still, the one on Iruka and Naruto had remained. Shino's interest with Yasha had led to him tagging him with a bug a few minutes after he entered the classroom on the first day. The bugs had a lifetime of only a few hours, so he had to tag him again just before lunch.

Unfortunately the bug had died suddenly, not able to report back at all. Shino hadn't thought that pressure and anger his bugs had reacted to all the way at the other end of the Academy grounds had been Yasha, but he was forced to change his opinion based on the new data. More investigation was needed: Yasha was much more powerful than he seemed – that explained why the bugs had retreated to the innermost part of Shino's chakra system from the moment he came into sight. Although they didn't even do that with the Hokage… Yasha's power felt unstable, whereas the wise leader was one of the most calm and peaceful people you could meet.

After allowing the analysis of the bug to be confirmed by a couple more, he let the hive offer up their jumble of opinions on what they had felt from Yasha when they had saw him:

**_'Death. Shadow. Confusion. Hunger. Evil. Instability. Hunger. Anger. Suppression. Predator. Hunger.' _**After that, the hive had fallen silent and started to retreat again to the centre of his body, something that made Shino's eyebrows raise a centimetre. _'Most peculiar.'_

Yasha's power was portrayed as a hungry, dark predator, feared even by bugs that could dodge nearly all opponents' attacks. It was an abnormality. Every person Shino had come across hadn't caused a reaction like this. When he had asked his father Shiho, he had just commented Yasha was the reason he woke up with his hive in a buzz during the night before. His techniques released a physic pressure that most of the village could feel, even the simplistic nervous systems of the kikaichu had picked up on it.

Judging from this bug and his hive's reactions, the pressure wasn't all there was to it. Shino saw no signs of a scuffle of any sort, bar Naruto looking upset, but that physic pressure had been felt across the entire school, and probably further. Most of the students thought it was Iruka. Why? Because he was a chuunin, and so expected to be able to control Killer Intent.

But the wide pressure release showed it had been solely mentally performed, at least the lack of marks on the classroom indicated that. Why? Because a physical technique would leave some mark, and mental techniques only worked on very limited numbers of people, and were definitely not wide-area. There was also the fact Yasha made no effort to appear high-level in the classroom, instead choosing to admit his faults openly as a way to hide his abilities.

Shino's conclusion that Yasha had an unstable power was unsettling, but he didn't see a reason to approach the new classmate. If the Hokage had accepted Yasha, the danger must be minimal. Although it was displeasing that his bug had died, it was from unconscious usage, and so couldn't be deliberate. Shino knew that. Why? Because the bug had still been on Yasha's back when it died, judging from where it fell to, so it was likely Yasha never knew it was there.

The nature of the 'hunger' was still a concerning question, if only due to the bugs, despite their very simple nature, finding it something to hide from. Shino made a note to discuss it with his father properly. Perhaps a more experienced member of the clan could investigate a bit more closely.

Shino had also personally noticed Yasha instinctively feeling dangerous. He had found it fascinating that there was no real logic behind it; from the moment Yasha entered the classroom he felt the other was dangerous, but for all his analysis his brain had no solid reasoning. He dismissed it due to a lack of foundational logic, but his body and hive remained nervous until Yasha left his sight.

A most peculiar anomaly – Shino had not believed instincts could have no basis. He had spent most of the class analysing the boy through his sunglasses, attempting to work out what his brain had perceived. He had considered every single physical attribute, from his height to his voice to the way he sat. But nothing.

Further study was needed.

* * *

Naruto was fairly decent at both syllabaries by the end of the day, and his hand looked noticeably swollen.

Yasha gave it a pointed look as the sun began to near the horizon. "Your hand is pretty messed up, Naruto-kun. Want to go to the hospital and have someone heal it?"

"Heal it? It's not that big a deal," Naruto defended.

Yasha shrugged dismissively. "I've only ever got aches and throbbing from writing before. I've never carried on so much that my hand swelled up. What were you trying to prove?"

Naruto grinned and said it as if it were obvious. "That I'm going to be the Hokage! Dattebayo! …Also, because I want ramen, dattebayo."

Yasha sniggered. "That's it, you'll be the Fifth Hokage, and your first law will make ramen supper for every day of the year. Mandatory requirement."

"No… I… Wait, can I even do that?" Naruto had stars in his eyes and a surprisingly thoughtful expression.

Yasha started laughing and the other boy soon joined in.

The two close friends wandered down the steps of the Hokage monument, the brunette pressing his point. "You should probably go to the hospital. Even if it does heal up properly, you'll have unnecessary pain until it does, and there's still a couple of hours until I plan to sleep."

"Hmm." Naruto glanced down at his painfully throbbing hand. Every time he moved his thumb or the two fingers nearest, it sent a spark of pain down the entire length of his arm, making him grit his teeth to avoid shouting. He willed it away as hard as possible – he had wanted to impress Yasha with how hard he had worked, and Yasha had noticed he was working despite his pain – but he hadn't complimented Naruto on it, just started questioning about the hospital. The blond felt a bit disappointed about that.

Naruto already knew what would happen at the hospital. He'd been before. They didn't want to see him, didn't want to examine him, didn't want to treat him, and didn't want to keep him. It'd be hours of waiting, sneers and disdain, and finally poor treatment like a bandage wrap. As if they would 'waste high-cost medical techniques on him', as they said one time.

Yasha didn't know that he wasn't liked in the hospital. He was an outsider, after all. Should he try to hide him away from them? No, that was too unusual. He couldn't come up with an excuse for it.

Maybe Yasha could help with the hospital treatment? "Yasha-kun…"

"Hmm?"

"They don't like me at the hospital," he blurted quickly before he lost his nerve.

A tense silence followed. Naruto stared at Yasha's head, cringing as he waited for the reaction.

"Well, yeah. They don't like you anywhere." Yasha turned as he said it, and so received the full shocked look from Naruto, who was lost for words for a good few seconds.

"So you can either use Henge, or force them to help. Hmm…" Yasha tapped his lips thoughtfully. "Henge wouldn't work, your chakra control is too bad to only use a partial one, and even if you simulate the hand being swollen as it is in your Henge, any medical healing wouldn't show any progress, so they'd catch on immediately. So we just have to force them to help properly. Come along."

He set off at a brisk pace, Naruto dazedly walking after him for a bit before his brain caught up. "Hold up, Yasha!"

Yasha was ahead and on his right side, so Naruto grabbed his left shoulder with his right hand.

"Oww!" Naruto groaned, grabbing his wrist with his other hand in a useless attempt to cut off the stabbing pains.

Yasha watched him with raised eyebrows. "Don't insist you don't need to go there. You're just proving my point, Naruto-kun."

"I…" Naruto found himself caught in the same blank, fixed stare with the undertone of 'just you try to say no, you'll regret it'. "Fine." He kicked at a loose stone on the street sulkily.

They began to walk through the town. Naruto cradled his hand before putting it in his pocket with another wince. Then he felt the glares of the villagers.

"See what I mean?" Yasha had a grim smile as he said it.

Naruto just dropped his head lower to avoid the looks.

"No," Yasha said firmly, pulling his chin back up, grinning despite himself at Naruto's bewildered expression. "If you keep staring at the street like some sort of underdog, I'm not walking with you. Hold your head up like you have goals, look at people like they're jealous of it."

Naruto attempted to do that. But looking back at someone who stared back with barely veiled contempt was _hard_. "Yasha-kun, I don't like it, dattebayo," he finally muttered.

Yasha sighed heavily. "You don't have to _like_ it, you just have to _endure_ it. A shinobi is one who endures. And soon you'll spot people who aren't angry at you. Look for those as well."

Naruto realised Yasha had a point. Shinobi _did_ mean that. He looked up in time to spot Kiba walk past with his mother (Naruto didn't know her name). Kiba gave him a defensive look… and his mother, who looked much more feral than Kiba, just looked thoughtful for a bit, as if she wasn't sure what to think of him. Then she grinned wickedly like she was enjoying a prank Naruto was in the middle of creating. Naruto beamed back before he realised it.

"I see some, Yasha-kun!"

Yasha smiled as some of Naruto's natural buoyancy returned. "Well, just nod and smile back at them, we have a date with the hospital."

And the buoyancy faded again.

* * *

The hospital was plain and disappointingly rigid in design; everything was a perfect 90 degrees from something else. The walls were painted a basic turquoise colour. The reception desk was brown oak, also rectangular, with two nurses behind it. The desk seemed to be the only thing in the hospital that wasn't rectangular.

Before the desk, there was a row of seats by the wall, but the rest of the room was empty, which gave off an ominous feeling like something was going to fall out of the ceiling to fill the space.

The two boys strode up to the desk, picking the woman on the right. Yasha stole a glance at Naruto and judged from his fearful expression that he wasn't going to sign in.

"New admission," Yasha declared with a sigh.

"Name?" the woman ordered, busy with some paperwork.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

Her eyes shot up and she glared at the uncomfortable blond, when Yasha stepped in the way and leaned over until his nose was inches from hers, his tone suddenly dark and sinister._**"Is there a problem?"**_

Naruto watched with sudden interest as Yasha's trademark intimidating stare was used on someone else. The nurse froze up, eyes locked on Yasha's blank ones.

And stayed frozen.

Finally, she spluttered, attempting to regain her composure. "No, no… is it urgent?"

Yasha leaned back. "It's a hand injury, high swelling. I'm in a hurry, so yeah, it's urgent," he replied flippantly.

"Uh…" she very briefly inspected Yasha's expression to see if he was serious. Then she decided he was a bit too dangerous to want to keep around, and so decided to write 'urgent'.

"Room 5. A doctor will be with you shortly."

"Great." Yasha smiled. It was fake. "What's the codeword used for severe chakra exhaustion?"

"Um, Code Green." She glanced at the other receptionist worryingly.

"How about missing limbs?"

"Code Red if they're bleeding out." The nurses now looked rather uncomfortable. Naruto also looked concerned.

"Awesome. Thanks, nurse-san." Yasha strode off down the corridor looking as casual as ever. The three gaped after him before Naruto followed hurriedly, wincing as the sudden movement jostled his hand.

"Do you know who that is?" the right-hand nurse asked urgently.

The other shook her head. "No, but he's scary. I felt that from over here."

They both nodded in grim agreement.

"He could be an Uchiha," one mused.

"Uchiha Sasuke?"

"Maybe."

The two shivered collectively.

"Wasn't an Uchiha capable of controlling the Kyuubi?"

"Hush! That's a secret."

"But if an Uchiha controls the fox… he could unleash _that demon_ on all of us!"

Unbeknownst to the two boys, that misassumption would cause a fresh burst of fear to spread amongst Konoha Hospital, and soon after Konoha itself.

* * *

Naruto strode alongside Yasha, a relieved grin on his face as he recalled the nurse's expression. The moment Yasha had blocked her line of sight, it had changed from disdain to fear. Naruto didn't like people being scared of him, but scared of Yasha, well… for some reason it made him happy, that the dark-haired boy was so strong.

_'But…no… he wasn't strong,'_ Naruto mused. _'I beat him in taijutsu today. He's smarter than me, but not stronger… unless he was hiding his true strength!'_

"Yasha-kun, how did you scare her when you're not as strong as me?" Naruto asked, deciding for bluntness. He wasn't as good with words as Yasha was.

Yasha gave him a puzzled look. "Um, I'm good at manipulation. That includes intimidation."

"Ohhh." Naruto felt a bit stupid; Yasha had already told him that. "And you can do that just with a _look_?"

"Yeah. Every part of someone's face makes their expression, and changes how you react to it," Yasha explained as they entered Room 5.

"For example, if I grin, I can make it look creepy or happy." He proceeded to demonstrate. "Giving a one-sided grin while looking sideways and slightly upwards is creepy. If you don't look upwards, but you do look sideways, you look like you've just done something sneaky or you're planning to. And if you look straight at someone, a one-sided grin makes you somewhat coy…" Yasha inspected Naruto's dazed expression with some pride, "…or can be used to get girls to like you. And there's all sorts of variations."

"That sounds complicated," the blond concluded.

Yasha hummed at his recognition. "It does take time, but it just boils down to how well you can visualise yourself doing what you're planning to do from your audience's perspective."

"Huh…" Naruto sounded lost, until he said, "like when you figure out if they can see you when you're doing a prank?"

"Yes!" Yasha was a bit surprised the blond wasn't as confused as he seemed. He had come to find Naruto was like that – he appeared completely lost until he connected it to something he'd done before. "It's harder than that, though. Most people react the same way to a prank, but depending how they feel, they would react differently to – a smile, for example."

"How so?" Naruto hopped up onto the examining table and dangled his legs off the side, swinging them idly.

"If you're in a bad mood, and someone smiles at you, your mood could get worse, if you don't like them – or better, if you do. Even though it's the same smile."

"You see it a different way, dattebayo," Naruto pondered out loud.

"Hai."

After about five minutes, Yasha strode to the corner of the room nearest the door and sunk down. "I'm gonna try something. Act like I'm not here. And don't look at me."

"Um…" Naruto couldn't reply before the door slid open.

A man with a white jacket, short black hair and a smile walked in, holding a clipboard. "Naruto-shi?"

"Hai!" Naruto grinned back, his grin wavering as he saw Yasha behind the doctor, apparently not having been noticed.

The doctor proceeded to make several hand seals and hold his glowing green hand over Naruto's red and swollen one. "Hmm… that's pretty extreme considering there's no injury to the bones. It's the most extreme overuse injury I've seen."

His patient nodded silently, his eyes trailing to Yasha before snapping back quickly.

"Hmm…" The doctor wrote some notes on the clipboard. "And there appears to be something dark in your chakra system that wasn't here the last time."

Yasha went very pale. Naruto was thankfully oblivious to that, though.

"Where? Just on my hand?" Naruto asked.

The doctor did the seals again, and hovered his hand over Naruto's body. "No, it's everywhere. It doesn't seem harmful… the largest concentrations are around your right hand, your brain and heart."

He tutted. "That's worrying, but it doesn't seem dangerous… it's not interacting with your body or the chakra system at all… but I'd like to keep you here for further analysis. It could be a delayed poison of some sort."

Naruto frowned. "Poison?" The only food he'd ate was bought by Yasha. _'Surely he hadn't…' _Giving his friend a quick look, he realised the brunette looked scared. _'No way…'_

His face fell like a ton of bricks as the doctor went on. "Yes. There are some rare poisons that aren't activated until the chemicals mature over time. It would explain why they're concentrated around two major organs."

_'The doctor is surprisingly polite,'_ Yasha thought. _'Naruto portrayed it like everyone in the hospital hated him, but there were just bad eggs. Still, he probably shouldn't be telling a twelve-year-old he was poisoned and the organs where it's around.'_

"Alright. Now, I have orders to report any health problems to Hokage-sama. I think this qualifies."

"Can you heal my hand first?" Naruto asked numbly, which surprised Yasha – he hadn't thought the blond was capable of suggesting something alternative to the Hokage's word. The blond seemed to elevate the Hokage position as godlike.

The doctor was put out for a bit, but smiled his agreement. "Sure. Lie down and keep your hand still."

With another few hand seals, he hovered the green glow over the boy's puffed-up hand. Then he rapidly stabbed a finger into certain points, slitting the skin and making Naruto wince.

"I have to release the excess interstitial fluid from the swelling," he explained curtly. Then he gripped Naruto's hand and roughly ran two of his own fingers along it. A spurt of yellow liquid and Naruto yelped in pain, his body clenching up protectively. This repeated a couple of times.

"Alright, now this shouldn't hurt." The doctor hovered his hand again and Yasha watched with some interest as the red and inflamed skin reduced and reverted to normal colour. "In future, never, _ever_ overuse it that much. Take some breaks. You're still young, there's plenty of time to do things."

Naruto nodded, roughly wiping away some tears from his face.

_'That probably hurt a lot more than he let on,'_ Yasha thought grimly.

The doctor casually wiped up the table and motioned for Naruto to sit up. "Now, wash your hands, and I think you have to see the Hokage…"

"Wait."

Yasha had stood up and was walking towards them, the doctor looking unsurprised at his presence, which miffed Yasha. _'Either he's used to ninjas sneaking around, or he spotted me and didn't give any sign. If it's the latter, it would explain why Naruto was treated nicely, so I'll have to watch again…'_

Yasha continued, "My chakra system has those black things. It's not a poison."

"You're sure?"

"Yep. Use your diagnosis thingy on me."

The doctor did so and his expression became concerned. "I can't get a reading for your chakra, there's too much of the black. Like a barrier around your chakra network."

"Yep." Yasha was a bit dismayed but unsurprised by the news. It meant medical techniques wouldn't work for him. "It's nothing to worry about."

They both missed the huge grin growing across Naruto's face as he realised his friend hadn't poisoned him at all. _'Now that I think about it… Yasha would have known the doctor would've seen it. He wouldn't have let me go to the hospital.'_ He felt stupid again. He had doubted his friend on the basis of a stranger.

The doctor hummed thoughtfully. "Hmm. Even if that were the case, it's still an anomaly, so I'll have to report it anyway."

"Fine." The dark-haired boy scowled in a way that made it obvious it wasn't fine. "Do you need us to come with you?"

"No, it should be fine without, if it's not dangerous. You two run along."

Naruto experimentally clenched and spread his hand. "Thanks, Doctor-san!"

Yasha just nodded mutely at the doctor and the two made their way out of there at a rapid pace.

"Your black stuff is in my body?"

Yasha cringed. "That sounds weird. Don't say it like that again. …And yes, I wasn't expecting it to be, but you'll be fine even if it is."

Naruto nodded, seemingly forgetting all about it. "Okay! Then what's for supper, Yasha-kun?"

"Ration bars." Yasha deadpanned, watching his expression before admitting. "Probably a stir fry or something. They're not hard to make, and they're pretty tasty."

"Sounds good, dattebayo!" Naruto approved cheerily.

* * *

**_Land, one foot. Muffle sound, smother the foot with chakra. Push some chakra to the side to spin to left. Push forward. Spot target window. Apply chakra to hands and feet, stop impact by window. Absorb soundwave with chakra._**

**_Flare chakra, two quick bursts. Enter window. Turn silently. Close window. Confirm seal is re-applied. Face client. Kneel. Report._**

"Hokage-sama. I have the report as requested. Lion's chakra has an abundance of Yasha's particles. The rest of the team is as expected."

"Hmm…" the Hokage nodded shortly. "Lion was the one who entered their residence?"

"Hai," the ANBU agreed shortly, his Eagle mask distorting his voice, "his proximity to the target is the likely cause of the anomaly."

The Hokage was silent for about a minute, the soft sound of his puffing the only sound in the office. The ANBU waited patiently, not moving a centimetre.

Finally the leader spoke. "Have no other members of the team enter the building. Lion is to remain on active duty, and stay on the assigned task. He is not to make physical contact with any of the squad; distance should be kept at all times. He will be the closest to Yasha at any time. If any health issue happens to Lion, grab Naruto and do not hesitate to use lethal force on Yasha if he's at all aggressive."

"Hai."

**_Disperse shadow clone. Assimilate new commands. Report to team by hand signals: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Wait for confirmation by squad. Continue to observe target._**

**_Perimeter is secure. Targets show no ill effects or aggression. Lion is healthy._**

**_The stir fry smells good._**

* * *

"Hey," Naruto said, yawning as he strode into the kitchen.

"Yep," Yasha replied briskly, swishing the pan around. There was a faint smile on his face from the pleasant sound of sizzling doubled.

"Need some help?"

"From the future Hokage?" Yasha grinned at him.

Naruto brightened at the compliment, but still looked tired.

"I only did some reading and walking today. You had to write and see the doctor. I can handle supper by myself," Yasha dismissed busily, adding some onions and more pork.

"Hai…" Naruto didn't feel comfortable leaving it to him, for some reason. But his tired mind couldn't come up with the sentences. "Let me know if you need help."

"Yep." Yasha waved his housemate away.

_'He's just so childish. But such a kind heart,'_ Yasha thought to himself, a frown crossing his face. _'How the __**hell**__ did he just get all that hate and become such a nice person? I was treated fine and I'm a damn sadist.'_

Sighing to himself, he added some pepper and garlic, letting the increased sizzling sound pacify away the thoughts. If he kept this up, he'd become the embodiment of Naruto's Suppressed Anger. Or something like that.

If Naruto decided the villagers didn't need punishing, it was hardly morally correct for him to oppose that. After all, he had nothing to do with a fight between the villagers and Naruto. Not past fights, anyway. Future ones, he'd get involved with, damn straight.

So far, all the fights had been between civilian wusses who lost their bladder control as soon as he released some of the darkness. In a way, it was easy, but he didn't _want_ it to be. It should be hard; it should be harsh fighting and Naruto growing closer to him because of the teamwork. Not just pushover after pushover. It made Naruto seem weak.

But in actual fact, Naruto could probably fight a civilian head on equally, even in his current state. He just lacked the desire to do it, the spark of aggression or hatred to power him. He had been so used to being beaten up, he was self-defeated before he entered the battle… and his kindness didn't let him take opportunities when he _could_ win. Instead he just ran for it or took the beating.

Clearly he was aggressive in _some_ way, though. He did prank, after all. And if Naruto was that kind when it came to people who deserved it, Yasha didn't think he would prank someone who was nice to him.

The only way Yasha could get revenge was to prank with him and be _very_ aggressive with those who tried to attack him.

But then again… those who tried to attack him… he couldn't kill them in front of Naruto. Darkness… no, _Death_ Release techniques were out again. And Yasha couldn't reveal his usually high KI until he was certain he was on Naruto's team, and that the summoning scroll was not needed. So even an intimidation would not be usable.

Yasha sighed, not noticing the stir fry beginning to stick to the pan. This whole infiltration was a damn mess. It was becoming more and more apparent each day that Zack had been a kid; he could have guessed that much even without the instruction scroll containing that titbit.

He closed his eyes tiredly, then remembered he was cooking and quickly opened them again. _'Best not to think a lot until supper's done,'_ he thought as he reshuffled the pan, quickly scraping the bit that had been stuck off and deftly flicking it towards the bin, only to have it miss and stick to the side.

He shrugged at it and turned back to the pan.

* * *

Naruto prodded at the plate piled with what appeared to be mostly vegetables with a suppressed grimace. _'Why did vegetables smell so good earlier?'_

"Itadakimasu!" Yasha dived into his pile rapidly.

_'He's fast!'_ Naruto watched impressed as the pile vanished away. Yasha ate with full mouthfuls rather than scrap at a time. It didn't look suitable to use chopsticks like that.

Yasha was halfway done with his plate a minute later when he realised Naruto hadn't even started. "Don't you trust my cooking?"

Naruto winced visibly. _'Ouch. Why did you have to put it __**that**__ way, Yasha-kun?!'_

"The vegetables are best eaten with meat. Just take amounts of both until the taste compliments each other. It's like add-ons to meat."

Yasha watched his unsure look for a while before choosing another tact. "It's like having several sides to ramen noodles. Eat them all at once."

What followed was best described as an impromptu race. Both boys would have been highly embarrassed if they found out the ANBU team was watching them, all of which were sweatdropping.

* * *

"I'm stuffed." Naruto grinned, patting a comically-distorted stomach.

"Ditto." Yasha smiled back, patting a slightly stiff stomach. He had made sure to include plenty of extra meat in his servings, to make sure his guests were satisfied. He had no idea if they would eat it straight from their host's digestive system, but it seemed likely.

"Alright, since we're tired, I'm going to exercise this off."

"Okay." Naruto nodded.

Yasha exited the building quietly and began a slow walk to the Hokage monument. It was the only way out of the village aside the main gate, and he doubted the Hokage would appreciate him leaving.

He had about an hour to kill using up his chakra. _'Assuming I'm being watched… meh. I can't change my training plans just in case I'm being watched, or I might never be able to go back to it. How would I know to revert to my original plans, if I can't even detect the tail as is?'_

Sighing, he did the fake summoning seals. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Jaaku Ryuushi!"

He flooded his chakra on the ground and felt the thin blanket of darkness around him. It was dark up here, but he probably had about three extra shadows. "I need to see if I can get the darkness to chew through something that's not chakra. It would be ideal for so many scenarios. And conveniently, there's trees around here, good for target practice."

He take a step forward, his legs feeling somewhat numb. He could sense rather than _feel_ the shadows adapting with him, the silhouettes modifying themselves to their fake light sources.

He had plenty of chakra left, though. Hopefully, he'd be fine. He reached out mentally, visualising the tree in front of him disintegrating.

Nothing happened.

_'Hmm.'_

He created a chakra string and shot it at the tree, then visualised it disintegrating.

Nothing, again. _'Weird, it worked on the lightbulbs…'_

He visualised the darkness spreading from the string onto the tree, wrapping around every branch, every twig. Then he mentally moved them all inwards, burrowing towards the center, like digging an anthill.

He watched, but nothing visually happened.

He took a step forward, and on instinct, raised his hand and clicked his fingers.

The world exploded into white.

* * *

**AN:** Yeah. When playing with flesh-eating bugs, experiments can fail a bit… brutally.  
I warned you about character death. Or is he dead? _**Kukuku**_**_…_**

I've realised I've got another good few chapters written, and the massacre hasn't happened yet. Amazing how much detail I packed into those pages, now that it's not about Yasha panickingly rushing from person to person trying to embed himself into the village. Rest assured there's still action.

Depending on feedback I may post more frequently. You are within my power now. Mwa ha ha.  
Hold on… your feedback is controlling my post rate. So who's controlling who? Now I'm confused…


	14. Help within hostility

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 14: Help within hostility**_

* * *

**AN:** Your vision goes white when there's a severe pain, especially in your head. So no, this isn't a new ability to do with light or some crap. _Come onn, guuuyyys._ Haven't you ever facepalmed really, _really_ hard? (I have, kills brain cells and induces headaches, wouldn't recommend)

Anyway: Feels alert! I added in extra feels after a program on my computer took _way_ longer than I expected, so I felt like getting back at something. This scene from Naruto's POV was going to be posted chapters later, but it would be a bit jarring unless I posted all the chapters very rapidly.

Beware of the feels. They have no mercy.

* * *

Yasha was screaming as he came back to himself. His skin was burning painfully over his entire body. It was like the worst sunburn ever.

He shoved chakra out of every part of his body in a desperate attempt to cut the pain off, vaguely noticing he was running low. The pain decreased, thankfully. Opening his eyes, he saw a good part of his right hand had gone. Just… gone. He could see the bones for most of his fingers, and a good part of his palm. His skin looked patchy, like whole areas had been stripped away.

_'I can't even form the cancel seal like this!'_

The bones wouldn't move. He could feel his hand, but couldn't move it. Shoving chakra to his right hand… or his wrist, as far as the remaining flesh went… and his horror faded to complete pained bafflement as the skin began to reform in front of his eyes. Tendons, cartilage, and flesh around that, all reformed, the tips of the cartilage and tendons protruding just before the skin did, in agonising levels of pain, until the whole hand was back.

Yasha flexed the hand experimentally, feeling very light-headed. It was one thing to be told he could regenerate… it was quite another to see it.

And feel it.

With each millimetre, each new nerve cell _screamed_. The pain felt oddly distant, though. No, _he_ felt oddly distant. His legs were a mile away. His head was way too far below him.

And then he passed out.

* * *

"Yasha! YASHA!"

_'Who's Yasha? …wait, isn't that me? I better not do anything until I know what's going on.'_

"YASHA! Wake up!"

_'Someone's shaking my shoulders. It hurts. Way too much. Do I have sunburn?'_

"Wha…" Yasha managed,"Stap narupo…"

His head felt really dizzy. "Stop!" he snapped.

The shaking stopped, thankfully.

"Are you okay?" the boy he had instinctively identified as Naruto asked, big blue eyes searching his half-lidded ones.

_'You mean besides a pounding headache, nausea, and a very itchy soreness over nearly all of my skin…'_

Yasha nodded slightly. "Yeah. Why?"

"Your face is two coloured!"

_'Wot.'_ Yasha experimentally felt at his face with his hand. The touch on a sore part sent a spark of pain. That part was super-sensitive.

Then his memory returned. _'Tree… click… pain… skeleton hand…'_

_'Wait, I had __**passed out?**_**'**

That was a decidedly surprising fact. He never thought he could pass out. It was one of those things strangers talked about but you never thought could happen to you.

"Hold on. I need to think," Yasha decided, laying back down on the cool grass.

"But you've been out here for _three hours!_"

"Huh?" The surprise at that nearly threw Yasha's focus off. "…No, just wait, Naruto. I'm fine. I just need to think. I trained with my bloodline and hurt myself."

That was the wrong thing to say. Yasha was instantly and painfully swept into a hug by his blond roommate who began to babble nonsensically. "You hurt yourself! Don't do that! What kind of bloodline is that! Death Release? It's too scary! It's too evil! Don't just…"

"STOP!" Yasha shouted again, cutting off his friend's scared rant. He spoke firmly and gently. "Put me down."

Naruto laid him back down _very_ carefully, his fear-filled expression and quivering bottom lip easy to read for the most untrained ninja.

"Okay. Just let me relax. And you just stop… panicking. Healing myself is part of my bloodline as well. I just need to relax for a bit before I try it."

Naruto nodded, calming down visibly, but still staring hard at him, barely blinking.

_'Hmm… that finger snap, or just the time of it… they attacked me. I was marked so they attacked me as well. But the other particles still in my body rebuilt the cells, but lost in a matter of speed and quantity… there would probably be a huge puddle of blood under me if every drop that went to that wrist hadn't been eaten. I don't think I've regenerated enough blood to make up… hold on, I couldn't have pulled the insects back into my body…'_

"Naruto? How long have you been here?"

"About a minute?" Naruto guessed.

"Go count how many shadows you have. Quickly!"

"Uh, okay!"

Yasha watched him run off to the top of the Fourth's head about twenty metres away and carefully sat up, the movement making him feel light-headed again. His vision tilted and blurred for several seconds and he blinked dazedly at what his eyes saw in front of him – a huge pile of sawdust and wood shavings where the marked tree had been.

"Ho shit." He chuckled morbidly at the destruction. "It worked, I guess."

There was rapid footsteps and Naruto skidded back beside him, his voice confused. "Um, Yasha? I have three shadows."

Yasha swore, adrenaline instantly blasting through his system, making him dizzy again. Worst case scenario was happening right now. "Okay, quickly, stand next to me. Help me up."

Naruto quickly did so, oblivious to the sense of doom over himself that Yasha could now detect very keenly. Yasha wobbled on his feet, his vision getting spotty. _'Shit. Shitshitshit.'_

He quickly clasped his hands into the Snake seal and rapidly moulded more chakra, feeling his consciousness begin to drift away. _'Shiiiiiiii…'_

Naruto was still holding him up when he regained consciousness again, he wasn't sure how much time had passed. Judging from Naruto not telling him to wake up, it hadn't been too long.

Another Snake seal and _mould, mould, mould!_

He could faintly feel a small gust of something running up his legs towards his hands, but he knew it wasn't wind. '_Naruto is seconds away from being eaten alive… or is he?'_

"Naruto, take me to the Fourth's head-"

* * *

_'…I fell unconscious again, damnit.'_

He drifted back in a lighter environment. It was the village lights, he was on top of the Fourth's head. Good, he could count his shadows from here, where there was light sources. He had to be quick, who knew if he was on the last few seconds with this.

Naruto was looking very worried now. Yasha was probably worrying even worse, but didn't let on. Yasha had already demonstrated to himself that the darkness couldn't kill him instantly. But Naruto was a different matter.

"Sit down," he ordered, letting Naruto awkwardly help him down onto the giant rock head. With a defeated sigh, he put his legs on the sitting Naruto's shoulders, prompting another confused look.

_'By raising the legs, ensure maximum blood flow to upper body,' _he recalled to himself.

The last thing he wanted was Naruto's hyperactivity losing control of the situation, so he spoke in a firm tone. "Okay, Naruto. I need to mould chakra, quickly, or we're both going to die."

"What?!"

Yasha held his hand up slightly. "Relax. Count your shadows. If there's more than one, my killing technique is still on you. And at some point, it will attack you, unless I mould more chakra and bring the technique back to me."

Naruto nodded frantically, counting his shadows again. "But why did you say 'we'? Are you going to die as well?"

_'He's surprisingly attentive_,' Yasha thought, and explained quickly. No time to waste. "It's targeting me as well. I normally use my chakra to show I'm not a target, but my reserves are too low."

"How long do we have?" Naruto asked urgently.

"Only a few minutes from the moment you went close to me. If you have three shadows and not two, probably even less."

"Um…" Naruto inspected the ground around him. "I only have two now. I did have three."

Yasha managed a smile. Lifting his legs higher was definitely helping with the light-headedness. "Good. Now I need to mould more, quickly…"

_Snake seal…_

And the light-headedness began to trickle back.

_'Chakra is a mix of body and spirit chakra…'_ Yasha mused, still moulding away as his consciousness drifted. _'So what happens when your body is attacked and rebuilt? You probably run out of the body part. Yang, I think it was called.'_

"I'm running low on Yang chakra, I used it up healing myself. I might not to be able to mould enough."

Naruto waved his hands frantically, careful not to throw the legs off his shoulders. "But you're not healed up! Parts of your face are missing!"

"Yep, so I'm pretty much out of chakra as is."

"Can't I help you?!" Naruto asked desperately.

Yasha shook his head slightly. "Not unless you're a medic. And I'm not even sure if my bloodline will let medics help me."

"Isn't there another way to get chakra?!"

"Um… ration bars and soldier pills…"

"Ow!"

Yasha wanted to lift his head up to see the cause of Naruto's exclamation but didn't want to risk falling unconscious again.

"Uh… like this?" Naruto held a brown and white pill up.

"The hell…?" Yasha blinked at it blankly. "Yep, quickly, give it to mh… ow!"

The thrown pill had whacked Yasha's teeth as it went into his mouth. He swallowed it quickly, beginning to scowl. "The hell, man! Watch how you throw that stuff! That hurt!"

"Sorry!" Naruto waved his hands defensively.

There was a tense pause for a few seconds before Yasha felt energy begin to surge through him, like a ball of heat starting from his centre and slowly moving outwards. He quickly moulded more chakra, extremely relieved as the heavy atmosphere began to fade away.

The two were breathing rapidly for a few minutes as Yasha double-checked the shadow count for both of them and the adrenaline began to wear off. "I need some more of those pills. That was way too close."

Naruto just nodded.

"Alright, let's go home quickly…"

Yasha blinked as his vision began to blur._ 'Damnit, I'm passing out aga…'_

* * *

"Yasha… Yasha! YASHA!"

Naruto's screams vanished away as his friend slumped, his weak voice trailing off. Half his friend's face was miscoloured, the skin torn away, and from what Naruto could make of his shirt, it was even worse underneath.

He felt tears that he had been holding in release down his cheek and he held his friend close, ear tightly to his chest.

_Badump._

His eyes widened and he clenched down hard on his own diaphragm, stifling the sob that was building up.

_Badump._

He was still alive! _'I have to get him to the hospital… no…'_ Naruto realised_, '…they don't like me there and Yasha said to take him home…'_

_Badump._

The heartbeat wasn't changing, a steady and comforting beat. Naruto was almost content to just lay there and listen until a gust of wind chilled him. His gaze widened. _'If I'm cold, with those holes in his clothes… Yasha must be freezing!'_

"Hold on, Yasha-kun," Naruto hastily added that honorific everyone seemed to use with him as he tried to lift the boy onto his shoulders.

Another sob ran through him unbidden as he staggered up, his friend's arms pulled over his shoulders. "You're going home, dattebayo."

Yasha's face, red and patchy from his _stupid_ _bloodline_, felt really cold against Naruto's cheek. Normally the three lines on his cheeks were ticklish, but laughing at his cold friend's touch felt really wrong. He pulled Yasha's weight over his shoulders, realising he weighed quite a bit. He was going to be hard to carry home.

"No," Naruto snapped at himself in rebuke. "He's going home."

He set off down to the monument steps, tears streaking his cheeks, the wind chilling them to icy trails.

On the steps, the wind rushed downwards, descending over the cliff face. Naruto was normally happy for the gusts but they couldn't be more unwelcome as he tried to keep his friend warm.

Finally they reached the bottom. Naruto looked up to see no one, thankfully. _'If the hospital doesn't like me, and the villagers don't like me… I can't be seen by any villagers,'_ he reasoned to himself unhappily_. 'Yasha-kun could get hurt. I can't let that happen.'_

He began a heavily diverted journey to his home, using the alleys and shadows to hide themselves from sight as much as possible. The tears had stopped – he had no time for them now.

As Naruto darted from alley to alley, his back and his arms began to ache from the strain of carrying someone who weighed the same as him. "I can't afford to stop… it's too cold. Yasha-kun will freeze, dattebayo," he kept telling himself.

Eventually he got to his home, legs trembling and recently-healed right hand feeling like it was on fire. No one was around, luckily. He stepped up the staircase to the second floor and slipped on the second step.

Time slowed as he tried his best not to hurt Yasha, twisting and cracking his forehead with a grunt of pain. He saw white as he hit the wooden stairs with the full weight of the other boy on his back.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto got back up hurriedly, legs shaking from stress. Second floor apartment… he was sweating pretty badly, and most of his muscles and joints were burning up, but he got there and grinned tiredly at the door.

He carefully listened to Yasha's chest again, heart clenching as there was no sound… then he heard the melodious _badump_ and beamed in relief.

He quickly searched his friend, eyes drifting over the impressive number of tiny holes in Yasha's top, and found the front door key to Yasha's apartment in his trouser pocket. He lost no time getting the brunette indoors, locking the door behind them and forcing his drained muscles to carry the boy the rest of the way to bed.

Yasha was completely unresponsive as he laid him on the bed. Naruto hurriedly pulled off his favourite orange jacket, covering the other boy with it and carefully pulling out the cover from under him, wrapping it over them both, tucking him in.

"There, there, Yasha-kun. We're home. You can go to sleep now," he murmured to the brunette. _'He's so cold… I need to warm him up.'_

He held his friend as close as he could, listening for the heart beat carefully, Yasha's chest tightly against his ear. Each soothing _badump_ sound made his own heart jump in relief.

"It's okay… we're here… we're home… you can sleep," he reassured the unconscious boy. "It's okay."

The alarm clock struck 11pm, and Naruto barely acknowledged it, still murmuring comforts to his friend. When the first pangs of sleep and exhaustion caught up to him a few minutes later he angrily batted them away. He had stayed up late before. Yasha needed him. He can go one night without sleep.

Grimly set on his goal, he listened to the steady but quiet heartbeat, murmuring quiet reassurances to his friend to keep himself awake. The clock struck 12am, and he didn't notice.

A while later, it struck 1am. He acknowledged that, yawning widely, forcing his eyes open and on the clock, watching the minutes go down as he listened to the heartbeat below him. '_Just one night… I can do that… just one, for Yasha… just in case…'_

2am struck and he was dozing fitfully, waking up and drifting off in minutes, certain within his short dreams that he was fully awake and incapable of sleeping.

Eventually a deeper sleep came upon him and he fell exhaustedly asleep, his fully-clothed body carefully providing warmth to the lukewarm brunette beside him.

* * *

Yasha woke back up, feeling much more… coherent. Daylight was coming through the window. Naruto was gripping him tightly, his head resting on Yasha's chest. Judging from the bags under his eyes, he had been awake for quite a while.

Yasha looked back up at his _(new!)_ right hand and poked it with his left. "Interesting…"

Naruto stirred as he spoke, so Yasha shut up hastily and looked down, marvelling at how the other boy managed to keep such a tight hold even in his sleep. It was damn adorable. If there was an audience, they would all be aww'ng.

Yasha felt an odd conflict. One part of him wanted Naruto off… personal space and all that. The other part couldn't care less. Yasha wondered what to go for. _'What was I doing this week, anyway?_

_'Oh yeah… preparing for the Uchiha massacre._

_'Or maybe they would be saved…now I've delivered the note to Shisui-san…_

_'Genjutsu training, chakra control training…_

_'Well, that second one had worked out well,'_ Yasha thought sarcastically, gazing up at the ceiling. _'Where did Naruto get a soldier pill from? They don't sell it to Academy students, and they're pretty unsure about giving it to genin, as well. Did he steal it?'_

Yasha looked down at his roommate. He hadn't put on his black sleeping cap, probably wasn't expecting to sleep at all. They were both still wearing yesterday's clothes – Naruto had covered him in his jumpsuit jacket…

_'No, probably not. So… my ANBU tail gave it to him.'_

He cringed at himself. _'I actually had a tail, and forced them to assist me? That's all kinds of clever, if I actually planned that out. But I didn't. And they're probably pissed at me now for making them blow their cover. I'm surprised the Hokage isn't up on my business already. Damnit, I'm meant to be keeping a super-low profile so I can sneak out into the Uchiha compound when the massacre happens! How the hell am I going to…'_

A knocking on the front door interrupted his angry thoughts.

He looked down at the blond's whiskered face again and decided if they barged in, Naruto was getting unceremoniously pushed off. The way his friend was holding him was touching, but there was too many ways this scene would give the wrong impression. Naruto just lacked the maturity to realise it.

"Anyone home?" a familiar, gravelly voice called.

Yasha planted his free _(new)_ right hand on his face. _'The Third Hokage, great, just who I want to see.'_

His left arm was pinned to his side, and he realised he was lying on Naruto's right arm. That kid would get pins and needles _so badly_ once he woke up.

"I'm coming in," the Third called quietly from outside the building.

Yasha sighed. The Third Hokage knew Naruto was asleep and he was awake. That explained his presence and his otherwise contrasting quiet tone. _'Damn you, ANBU tail._ _And hell, you're the __**Hokage**__. Why do you need permission to enter a building in your own village? Just kick the damn door down while throwing confetti or some shit around.' _He draped his right arm across his eyes and waited impatiently as the village leader strode unhurriedly straight towards their bedroom. _'The Hokage knows about Naruto's immaturity, so no reason to cover this scene up, he won't misinterpret it.'_

The Third opened the bedroom door and watched the scene with a twinkle in his eye. Yasha groaned at him irritably. "Do you have to just _watch_ like that?"

"Hmm? Is there a _problem_, Yasha?" the Hokage replied with a sly grin.

The other boy felt his face heating up at that tone. _'Damn you, teenage body. Stop getting embarrassed so easily.'_

"No, I just trained too hard. He wasn't meant to be anywhere near me," Yasha told him shortly.

Hiruzen's smile faded. "Is that so?"

That tallied with the ANBU team's report. None of the four-man team had gained any extra shadows, as they had remained a good fifty metres from Yasha the whole time, even Lion stuck at no closer than forty. If it hadn't been for the doctor's report earlier that night, of Yasha's bloodline resisting medical diagnosis, the team probably would have sent for medical assistance a while after he had collapsed.

The destruction of the tree and Yasha's skin mutilation kept them from tending to him themselves, though. Not to say, the report showed impressive destructive and healing ability. The Third had visited the remains of the tree – the biggest part of the pile was little more than an inch-wide, half-centimetre-thick flake. But it was safe to say, if he hadn't put the ANBU tail on Yasha, both these boys would both be dead.

"He's an idiot," Yasha muttered. "Your whole village is full of idiots."

The Hokage chuckled out loud at Yasha including himself. "I think… that's quite accurate."

Gai, Kakashi, Anko, Jiraiya… there weren't many who were without obnoxiously large personality traits.

"There's a lot of darkness coming in the next few days," Yasha said ominously, fully aware he could kill the whole secretive topic by simply waking Naruto up.

The Third's humour vanished in an instant as the Uchiha coup was mentioned. To his credit, he didn't release any amount of pressure that would have woken the blond up. "How do you mean?"

Yasha implied Danzō as he spoke in metaphors so the ANBU tail wouldn't catch on. "Evil in the foundations of a structure. The cracks begin to spread. My sponsor…" Yasha gave a deliberate wince, "…has already tried to help, but it probably won't be enough. He predicts that much."

"I see…" the Third's tone was distant and unwaveringly resolute.

Yasha thought hard. It was lucky he was fully coherent seconds after waking up. _'Can I risk it?' _He mentally shrugged and opted to go for it. "I have some sort of plan that will help further. But for that, you'll have to call off the tail I have."

The Third's gaze narrowed.

"Don't look at me like that!" Yasha lowered his arm to conceal his view of the village leader childishly. Best to hide your intelligence a little. "I've already helped out time and again. I even went outside the village just to practice chakra control, just to make sure no one was hurt. And the tail threw me a soldier pill, so I know they are there."

That much was true. Although you could want no one hurt for multiple reasons.

"Who is your contact?" the Third asked, eyes still narrowed.

_'What?'_ Yasha's mind raced. _'Oh, he thinks I want the tail gone so I can make contact with my 'sponsor' somehow. That's no good. There's not a snowball's chance in hell for him to drop my ANBU tail if that's what he thinks I'm going to do.'_

"I don't have a contact. I can't access my sponsor, he has to come to me. I don't even have a way to contact him in an emergency," Yasha hastily clarified. "He's got eyes on the village to some extent, so I wouldn't even need to report to him. If I fail, well, I die anyway."

_'Lots of "him" usages. Interesting that giving away the gender doesn't trigger the seal,'_ the Hokage mentally noted. _'Eyes on the village to '__**some**__**extent'?**__ Pah. That sponsor has better eyes on the village than anyone short of the higher council. Maybe it __**is **__the council? Danzō definitely not, his style doesn't match up, but another member?'_

The Hokage cleared his throat quietly. "What do you plan to do, then?"

Yasha lifted his arm somewhat and gazed steadily at the village head from underneath it. "Um… it involves genjutsu, and for that, I need all the scrolls I can get on the basics."

"The _basics?_" The Hokage repeated in surprise. "That won't go far. Can't someone else do the genjutsu for you?"

Yasha pretended to consider it to appear reasonable. In actual fact, although there was no reason to hide rescuing the Uchiha kids, he had to first admit they were going to be killed – and then the Hokage would interfere with the massacre, and presumably that failed in the second reset.

Plus, no Uchiha chibi army if it was too obvious he was saving just kids.

So he just shook his head. "No, unfortunately not."

The Hokage wasn't sure what to think. "What will having this genjutsu accomplish?"

Yasha's gaze fell down to the blond head on his chest, knowing how he would react to this. "Saving many lives, I hope. If it fails, they are going to die. Me as well, probably."

"How many lives?" the Hokage pressed, eyebrow raised at the casual mention that the mission was probably suicidal.

"Less than ten," Yasha offered a bone and sighed dejectedly. "If I do nothing, they're definitely dead."

"How do you know they're going to die?"

In his head, Yasha smiled and thumbs-up'd the wizened leader. _'An excellent point, sir. No real way to counter that question – predictable deaths only meant disease or murder. I can't lie about how I know at all, without saying I'm from the future or can predict it, and I'd rather not draw that sort of attention from anyone. If any enemy catches wind their plans were predicted, they change their plans, the future becomes unpredictable again. So, move the focus on 'how' away.'_

The brunette looked away with faked guilt. "You'll have to ask my sponsor. He told me."

_'It's a cheap way to avoid the question, but luckily, he can't argue with it. He knows my sponsor has an excellent spy network.'_

The Third scowled at the deflection, a somewhat uncharacteristic look that darkened his face considerably. _'How do outsiders know more about my village than __**I**__ do?'_

His tone was clipped. "Are you planning to kill someone?"

"No," Yasha answered honestly. If the mothers resisted the kidnapping, they _could_ be killed, but he certainly wasn't planning for it. He was rather hoping to avoid it, since 'I saved your life but killed your mother' would not go down well with the chibi army.

The village leader was meanwhile deep in thought. With this request and information, Hiruzen knew Danzō's reaction would be to smother Yasha in more guards so they didn't miss out on any information.

It was lucky the war hawk hadn't made a move on Yasha – he was probably just planning to copy the current ANBU's written reports and then decide if Yasha was worth his time. With the Uchiha unrest, Yasha was a concern that just wasn't as pressing, unusual bloodline and KI release aside.

The ANBU hadn't written up yesterday's events, and Yasha's abilities, bar the single report the Hokage had in his pocket. They were trained not to discuss their missions anywhere – even to other members of the team – and had remained on watch around Yasha constantly, so there was no way to have obtained the information bar a direct revelation to Danzō from one of the tailing squad. It was unlikely a Root had managed to monitor Yasha from outside the ANBU squad and remain undetected.

The training yesterday had forced the ANBU tail to interfere – and Yasha's heavy self-imposed injuries that forced their involvement was too much of a risk to Yasha for it to be deliberate. So Yasha wanted the tail gone, but there was no way to know if he had detected them other than their assist yesterday.

Still, there was the presence of Yasha's bloodline in ANBU Lion. But for all that, he didn't seem to react to his tail, according to the report. Even yesterday, when Lion had walked past him under a Henge to appear as a civilian, Yasha hadn't looked twice or remotely reacted to him. Either the bloodline was undetectable in other people, or Yasha just wasn't experienced enough to detect it.

And it was unlikely Yasha could detect his tail. That gave the Hokage free rein to agree to remove the tailing squad, and keep them watching Yasha anyway. The brunette would notice nothing, and Hiruzen wouldn't lose much sleep over that.

If the squad made a mistake and were found, they weren't going to be killed by Yasha – he wasn't capable enough, not for ANBU – and Yasha could hardly fuss at the Hokage for running the village the way he saw fit. Yasha would just silently abort whatever plan he had and let the lives he thought would be erased, be so.

The Third sighed. He could at least get the promising boy the genjutsu scrolls. The basics certainly weren't a concern for ANBU-level ninjas.

But why basics on genjutsu could help Yasha save lives was beyond him. The basics were only suitable for civilians or genin, max – but how would the Sponsor know in advance who was going to die?

It had to be murder. Premeditated, and timed. Genjutsu wouldn't help at all for terminal medical diseases, and it was difficult to put one on sick people anyway, as their chakra flow was often distorted by the illness.

And why genjutsu to save them? Yasha could easily handle civilians and genin by himself, using his bloodline. Okay, his control on the KI was so bad that most of the village yesterday had been certain an enemy ninja team had snuck onto the Hokage monument. Unbeknownst to the two boys, there had been an ANBU team on clear view in front of the monument stairs, just to reassure the inquisitive civilians that whatever was releasing the pressure was under control.

But if it was civilians/genin who were future murderers – why handle them with _genjutsu?_ It was the hardest out of the three main jutsu to master or improve on. Taijutsu just required time and hard work, ninjutsu relied on slowly improving reserves and repetition, but genjutsu was easily the most difficult to perform. It relied on the finest of chakra controls, capable of skimming along the chakra flow in the brain itself. A slight mistake would lead to an easily-seen-through genjutsu.

Truly bizarre. He didn't understand Yasha's thought process at all, and judging from the lack of information and desire for no tail in his request, the mission he was planning was top-secret. "Hmm… I'll get you the scrolls, at least. And I bought a gift for you."

Yasha mutely accepted the small pill box offered to him.

"A couple of soldier pills and blood replenishment," the Hokage explained in a kindly tone as Yasha looked a bit shocked. "I recommend taking a couple of the blood ones now… and never taking the soldier ones."

"Hai!" Yasha beamed up at him.

"Thanks for trying to protect Naruto yesterday." Hiruzen smiled.

"It's my duty as a member of Konoha, Hokage-sama," Yasha replied whole-heartedly.

The Hokage coughed. He wasn't sure if he considered Yasha a part of Konoha _juuuuust_ yet. "Quite."

He turned to leave but was interrupted by Yasha's call. "Ano, Hokage-sama… can you do anything about getting me training in the Nara clan?"

_'Hmm, that was another bold move,'_ the old man analysed the dark-haired boy again. _'I was quite sure he'd keep his interactions with Shikaku-san away from me.'_

Still, he couldn't really help here, Hokage or not. "No, Yasha-kun. I can put in a good word at best, but clan matters are theirs to manage."

Yasha looked down meekly. "I understand."

"Besides, you don't seem very experienced with your own shadows." The Hokage grinned.

_'A quip at both my skills and inability to detect the tail?!'_ Yasha sat up indignantly. "Hey, I-"

"Wha?" a slurred voice made his stop.

"Crap, he's awake." Yasha looked back up to shoot the Third Hokage a glare but the doorway was empty. He blinked at it. _'Crazy sneaking skills… or shadow clone. Damn, I need to learn how to do that.'_

His gaze drifted down to Naruto who tiredly mumbled something incoherent and his grip grew even tighter. The Death Release user considered throwing him off the bed, but investigated the contents of the pill box instead. Twelve pills, two of them soldier pills. The blue and red ones were probably the blood ones…

Naruto still had a vice-like grip, mumbling something, only half-awake. Yasha strained his ears to pick up on it. "Ramen… fu… ga…eh…yashkin hahnt noticked…"

Yasha rolled his eyes and flicked Naruto smartly on the glabella.

"Ow!" Naruto shot up, his grip loosening but still holding onto Yasha. Still heavy bags under his eyes, and this time he didn't dive off the bed. He couldn't, his arm was still underneath his friend and hindered his movement. "Yasha?!"

"Yo," Yasha quipped, making a certain silver-haired jounin sneeze. He tensed his stomach muscles but the still-increased grip still caught him off guard. _'Man, this kid has muscles.'_

"If you start crying you're making your own lunch," he managed.

"Don't be like that!" Naruto swatted away his deflecting sarcasm. "You were hurt! You nearly died!"

Yasha grunted. "So did you. Baka."

Despite himself Naruto scowled, making Yasha grin. "Now let go, before one of my kidneys croaks," the brunette ordered.

Naruto looked about to protest but released him, holding Yasha by his shoulders instead.

Yasha brushed his arms off before he could say anything with those pleading puppy-dog-eyes appearance. The concern in them couldn't be more obvious if he was screaming it out loud. Sappy emotions were not something Yasha wanted, when a few days from now, the Uchiha kidnappings had to occur. He needed cold logic, not emotional complications.

He quickly turned and stood up from the bed, and next thing he knew his face hurt. There was a bruise forming on his right cheekbone. _'Ow.'_

There was a muffled noise from nearby. He tried to reach up for his cheek but something was in the way. Something really hard and it wouldn't damn move. It was peeving him off.

His cheek was on that hard thing. _'Wait, what?'_

Oh. He was lying on the floor. He had collapsed without even taking two steps. An humiliating faceplant. That explained the bruise and the fact the floor wouldn't move. Floors didn't tend to do that.

The muffled sound was Naruto calling his name in shock. _'Muffled hearing too?'_

Oh yeah, now he remembered why he had no energy.

Soldier pills… they were a hack at best. They pulled in all the body's reserves, all the way to the extremes, and didn't replenish them in the end. It was like an adrenaline boost, but for chakra. You fly high for a bit then your body crashes even worse. That's why they were meant for adults only, they had large enough reserves so that the amount they were depleted wasn't fatal. It was surprising he survived last night.

He probably had no energy AND no blood now. The insects would've gobbled up all the drops that would've otherwise hit the ground. _'Not the best form to be in when you suddenly switch your heart from 'pumping low amounts of blood horizontally to your brain', to 'high amounts vertically'.'_

The muffled hearing and darkened vision was clearing up. He hadn't even noticed his eyesight had gone black. Weird. _'My blood level must be pretty bad if my senses are screwed up,'_ he noted to himself.

"Naruto…"

_'…urgh, my voice feels weak…'_

"…I think it's your turn to make breakfast today."

Naruto's voice was solemn. "What type of ramen do you want?"

Yasha groaned. "Oh Kami."

* * *

Eventually he made it to the table, and hastily swallowed the red and blue blood pills courtesy of a glass of water. He was too sluggish to even wince at the taste as he stuffed two ration bars down his throat.

Naruto fluttered about the kitchen, pacing in front of and around him and generally making no effort to make breakfast at all. Yasha got him to make a huge pile of scrambled eggs on toast (yay, protein) just to stop the irritating movements. Hopefully even Naruto could manage eggs.

There was a knock on the door again.

"The hell?" Yasha spoke a couple of seconds later. "I haven't given anyone our address."

He stood up slowly, having already downed most of a plate, and carefully made his way to the door, waving Naruto's efforts to assist away. _'If this is some no-good civilians…'_

He opened it to see the creepy-eyed classmate. His brain refused to identify her name, so he just gazed blankly at her for a few seconds before the small amount of adrenaline wore off. Stupid brain. He decided to collapse onto her to get back at his weak memory.

She nearly dropped the little bottle of what she was carrying as she caught him. Surprisingly strong grip, that was the taijutsu for you. The amount of stuttering and blushing was as hilarious as he hoped. Her blood pressure must be off the scale with a face that red.

"Well, do come in," he cut in amongst all the 'ano's and 'eto's.

She helped him back through the hallway towards the kitchen. "Naruto, we have a guest!" he called after he shut the front door, one arm draped across the girl's shoulders.

"Who is it?"

"Creepy-eyed girl!" Yasha announced.

"Huh?" Naruto poked his head out of the kitchen. He gazed at the furiously-blushing Hyuuga. "Oh, Hinata!" He looked sideways at the smirking Yasha. "Her eyes aren't creepy, they're kinda cute."

Yasha swore as his assistant fainted beside him and they both plummeted towards the floor.

* * *

Yasha had carefully spun so now he had a nice bruise on the back of his head. Hinata had thus landed on top of him and wasn't hurt at all.

Naruto had also gone bright red after he had realised what he said, so he didn't even help them up. When he finally moved to, Yasha had to yell at him lest he let the eggs burn to the pan. The boy was a completely inattentive nincompoop.

So Yasha and Hinata were now lying on the hallway floor with the pleasant smell of eggs coming through the doorway. Yasha was too tired/lazy and so didn't move from where he had caught Hinata, other than rubbing the bruise on the back of his head. He used the spare time to think about what he would like to buy in way of t-shirts.

Something menacing, but not too weird. Something that'd make his enemies wet themselves and his friends feel a bit safer.

He came up with three ideas before Hinata finally gasped.

"Good morning, Hinata-_chan~_,' he greeted in a suggestive voice.

She _vaulted_ up from his chest with all the ability of someone who didn't have horrifically low blood pressure. "Ano… eto…" she began hastily, instantly flushing again.

_'Well, 'began' is probably too strong a word,'_ Yasha thought with a grimace. "Oh Kami, not that stuttering crap again. Help me up and stop speaking. Geez."

Like Naruto, she snapped to attention at his Firm Tone Of Authority and helped him back to his chair. Naruto was just finishing cooking the last batch of eggs, and Yasha glanced down at his only slightly warm half-filled plate with a wince before dousing it with salt and eating it hurriedly.

"Ano… Ya-Yasha-kun?" she began nervously

"Oh for crap's sake, _what?"_ Yasha grouched at her. _'Talking to this girl is terribly inefficient.'_

She gaped for a bit. The informality, probably. "Wha-what ha-happened to your ski-skin?"

Yasha waved his arm expressively. "Naruto threw scrambled egg at me and burned it off."

"What?!" both of them jumped. Hinata looked at Naruto with horror, who was looking at Yasha the same way. Yasha laughed at their expressions. "No, just kidding, I used my bloodline too much, and it messed me up."

Now he had the benefit of _two_ horrified faces turned towards him.

"Don't joke about that, Ya-Yasha-kun!" Hinata gasped.

Yasha coughed lightly to smother a rising blush. He was NOT joining their ranks. He'd go to hell and fight the devil himself on home turf before he became a blushing, sweating, embarrassed idiot.

Hinata was pressing her index fingers together over the table, gazing at him intently with her weird eyes. "So how do-does your blo-bloodline affect your ski-skin?"

Yasha sighed as Naruto turned off the cooker and dumped the rest of the eggs on his plate. That guy ate a lot. "Put simply, I control an incredibly small insect species, that are carnivores." Yasha held up his (_new!_) right hand. "I didn't control them properly yesterday, so after I destroyed the tree, I also got them to attack me by accident."

"What!" Naruto's hands smacked onto the table in his anger.

"Yep. Since they are used to targeting people…" Yasha watched their horrified looks grow with detached interest, "…they also target me from the instant I release them from my body. I forgot to cancel that before I told them to attack. So the ones in my body rebuilt it as a form of protection, while the ones outside attacked it. Thus, you get missing skin."

"But there was no blood…" Naruto looked queasy as he said it.

Hinata looked simply horrified.

"No, they eat blood as well, so the amount I lost can't be measured by how much falls on the ground. There simply won't be any that falls on the ground; it'll get eaten. That's why it's called Death Release; it kills all the cells it touches."

There was quite a long pause as both stared hard at the black-haired boy casually talking about his body being mutilated.

"Ano…" Hinata took a while after that before she spoke up, gaze flickering between the two boys. "So why didn't you ge-get them to heal you co-completely?"

Yasha rolled his eyes and gestured at his housemate. "Naruto, what happened after I got out of bed?"

"Uh, your eyes went dead and you fell over, dattebayo."

Yasha snorted at his description. "Yep. Since it happened I had low blood levels and energy levels. Hence, eggs for breakfast."

Hinata nodded in understanding, some of the fear fading as Yasha clearly had a plan to deal with it, while Naruto looked confused. "Why eggs for breakfast?"

"Protein," Yasha explained shortly, rolling his eyes again.

"What's that?" Naruto asked obliviously.

"The stuff your body uses to make more cells." Yasha looked sideways at Hinata and smirked. "Like sperm cells."

And plop, Hinata fainted again, and Naruto had no clue why.

* * *

**AN:** Yasha is a bit evil with his humour, but it does demonstrate he's excellent at manipulating. He says the same thing to a room of people and plays on their different levels of knowledge so only one is affected.

What's that you ask? Why did I post this so quickly? I posted Ch 13 and got like nothing for hours while I camped on Hotmail. So I went to bed, got up and 10 emails. Including a very nice review. Cue warm fuzzy feelings. You guys can't understand our love!

So how did you guys rate the feels in this? Reaction scale from Shino to Clannad. Let me know or um... I'll sue you all! (or just delay the next chapter)


	15. Troublesome Nara

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 15: Troublesome Nara**_

* * *

**AN:** Yah, boo. Why aren't you guys posting reviews?  
_(thanks, NightlyRowenTree, NarutoXHonoka, war sage)_

Screw the rest of you inattentive guys. I'm gonna write anyway. Because hey, weekend, you guys need your reading materials, or your little brain cells will corrode away from lack of use.  
…this must be that 'tough love' people keep talking about. Do you feel the lovin'?

Fine, fine, I'll get on with the damn story… since almost no one reacted to the white-out scene…

* * *

By the time Hinata had recovered, most of Yasha's vitality had returned, courtesy of the blood pills, eggs, and ration bars – and he could walk about without feeling light-headed.

He then asked why Hinata had visited them. Apparently she had 'crossed paths' with them as they were going into the house yesterday, and so knew their address – although personally Yasha thought she was stalking Naruto – and she had heard Yasha was injured yesterday and brought some healing salve for his skin.

Yasha internally rolled his eyes at the number of holes in her argument. Firstly, how did she know a salve was needed unless she personally saw him yesterday, not heard it through the grapevine about "being injured"? Secondly, why did she assume it was Yasha's home when both boys (from completely different backgrounds) went into a building? It could have been Naruto's… or neither's home and they could be just visiting.

She was blatantly stalking Naruto or him. Judging from the lack of being scared off by the ANBU tail, either he hadn't had it constantly since he was in the village, or they were just capable of hiding themselves from Hyuuga's bloodline, the Byukawotsit.

Or Naruto had been stalked by her before Yasha had arrived, and the Jinchūriki had had an ANBU tail already. Wasn't too surprising, the Hokage was fond of him, and he was technically the village's strongest weapon.

There were too many possibilities. So it was time for information gathering with some emotion reading.

"Hinata-san?" he reverted to a formality she would be used to.

"Hai?" Her head shot up at the Firm Tone.

"How does your bloodline work? The Byukawotsit?"

Naruto snorted and started a fit of coughing. Yasha thumped him unceremoniously on the back and got a glare for his efforts. He responded with an innocent smile.

"Um… what spe-specifically do yo-you want to kno-know?" She pressed her index fingers together in that weird habit of hers.

"What can it see? Who can activate it in your clan?"

Naruto looked over with interest as well, a strip of egg dangling handsomely from the side of his mouth.

"Eto…" She then proceeded to explain, and spoke so much with the amount of stuttering it took mental effort to decipher the main points.

It was activate-able by anyone in the clan, and it saw chakra flow, and could see through walls and buildings for a 360 degree vision. Initially the area you could see was small, but through training it would open up. You could also see internal organs and such, including blood vessels, but not to the details of capillaries (the tiniest of blood channels that run between cells).

Pretty significant. As a doujutsu, it was shockingly powerful. Bar ground attacks (which Hinata eventually confirmed, albeit indirectly, were still a concern), you couldn't miss an attack. It did have a weakness about speed, though, same as Sharingan – seeing it didn't equate to stopping it. Everyone could see a Bijū miles off, but they couldn't stop it.

360-degree vision suggested having one eye alone wouldn't make any difference to the line-of-sight. Combine it with the Sharingan – man, you'd be unbeatable.

Unless your reserves sucked. And they tended to do so if you weren't a natural owner of a doujutsu and used it anyway. _'Mm. Scratch that idea, then.' _Although Kakashi was supposedly feared for his Sharingan, his body naturally bore the strain of not having it naturally. Whoever originally had that eye would be much more efficient with it.

Yasha looked so much like an Uchiha, if he transplanted their eyes, no one would notice the difference. And if he 'awoke' the Sharingan his ancestry was as much a mystery to him than other people; it wouldn't be too surprising.

Plus, his bloodline would automatically handle repairing eye nerves. He could literally yank his current eye out and replace it and in hours his eyesight would be back. Maybe minutes.

Hmm… actually, his eyes currently held darkness particles. Maybe a transplant attempt wouldn't work, and the new eye would be eaten instead of grafted in. It certainly wouldn't surprise him.

Maybe his entire eye could be reconstructed from scratch?

Being that everything bar bone and blood had been created just yesterday, it was very possible. And the speed of the regeneration yesterday had been impressive. Nearly a full hand in ten minutes max – although he was estimating that, as the pain and confusion had thrown off his internal timer. A full set of nerves, chakra channels, skin, veins, capillaries, tendons, cartilage, fingernails…

Although now he looked at his fingernails, he realised they hadn't regrown. He hadn't noticed, but there was just a gap, with the faint signs of new nails poking through on the bottom.

It felt a bit sensitive, but oddly, he hadn't noticed so far. It was like when you were scratched but didn't notice the injury until hours later. He'd probably notice when he gripped something and applied pressure on his fingertips.

"Heh. Cool," he said while inspecting his hand openly.

"What is?" Naruto asked, still finishing off his previously overloaded plate.

Yasha spun his hand so the other two could see it. "This was little more than a skeleton hand yesterday. Only bones. And it's been repaired."

They both stared at it like it was going to grow eyes and stare back.

"Ano… your fi-fingernails are mi-missing," Hinata pointed out.

"Yep."

"So is the little hairs on your arm," Naruto added.

Yasha spun his hand back and experimentally ran his other hand down the skin. Completely smooth.

"Oh crap, if I regenerate a bit of my head, I'm gonna have a bald patch," he realised.

The two sweatdropped. _'Nearly dying and only concerned about his looks.'_

"Well, Hinata, how about your salve? Can it do anything for that?"

"Ha-Hai… it he-helps ce-cells regrow." She smiled.

Yasha pulled off his jacket ('_Full of tiny holes, thanks, darkness…'), _and his top _('Seriously? I'm gonna need a new damn wardrobe.')_ with a wince as it rubbed sensitive parts of his skin, and heard two sharp intakes of breath.

"What?"

He gazed down and realised, _'Oh, most of my skin is still gone around there.'_ Red patches and darker red patches littered his entire chest, sides and back, some big enough to fit his hand in.

It was probably his injuries that distracted Hinata from her blushing and fainting at a boy stripping in front of her. Although, she was still red, she made some hand seals. "Byakugan!"

The veins around her eyes bulged and Yasha could now make out her pupils (same colour as iris, a lavender colour). She sucked in another intake of breath with a wince. "Your in-insides are da-damaged as well. There's blood po-pooling whe-where cells are mi-missing."

"Well, shit." He smiled almost cheerfully. "I'm going to have to regenerate again."

She gazed up at his expression with a frown at his lack of reaction. "Those bla-black bugs are so small I can't e-even see your tenketsu. Yo-your chakra paths are co-covered by them."

"Woot! Byakugan defence!" Yasha shot both fists into the air dramatically.

She stared harder at him before sighing. "Hai. I can't make ou-out the points. The Jyuuken won't work well at all, it'd be gu-guesswork. And the bugs could resist the chakra or restore the flow anyway."

Yasha nodded shortly. "Okay. But I could defeat both of you anyway, in a couple of sentences."

Naruto frowned at him. "I beat you yesterday, dattebayo."

Yasha sighed. "Fine. I'll prove it. Whose house are you in?"

The blond's expression dropped and he floundered visibly for a comeback. Yasha turned to the other occupant. "And Hinata, you can see right through my clothes, can't you? You just love that part of your bloodline!"

And she went bright red, only emphasised by Naruto staring at her in shocked realisation.

"She's about to faint," Yasha commented, "…and you're about to be made homeless. I haven't even physically touched you, but I'd say that's a defeat for both of you."

Naruto spluttered before a deep scowl settled on his face as he calmed down. "That's horrible, Yasha, dattebayo."

Yasha folded his arms. "This is war," he gravelled in a deep emphasised voice, "and there are no winners in war. There is just… the greater good."

ANBU Lion raised his eyebrows. He hadn't heard that phrase before. He scribbled it down, later he'd add it to the impromptu list of Yasha phrases kept on a blackboard back at base. 'Your village is full of idiots', complete with the Hokage's agreement, would probably be the most appreciated one so far.

_" Manipulation… "_ Yasha sang out loud as he slowly stood up, took his plate to the sink and rinsed it off.

Naruto stared at his housemate's patchy-red back as he hummed tunelessly and flinched. It looked raw and sensitive like it'd been burned off. Wordlessly, he picked up his own clean plate and brought to the sink. Yasha took it without a glance and cleaned it off as well, making Naruto frown.

Even when Yasha was injured, he still did the most for Naruto. And as Yasha had reminded him, it was Yasha's money that bought the house. It still perturbed the blond. _'Why was he being so nice? No one's gone out of their way to do things for me like I deserved it.'_

_" Manipulation, it's like a grey rat stealing a pie, 'cept without the rat, or the pie… and with added manipulation… "_ Yasha sang quietly, completely deadpan.

Naruto snickered and Hinata giggled at the silly song and the tense atmosphere fell away.

"When are you going to regenerate it, Yasha-kun?" Naruto pressed, whilst thinking, _'I don't want you to be in pain any more.'_

Yasha glanced over at him. "Hmm? Probably in a few minutes. I'll have to go out of town again."

"Ano…" Hinata still had her Byakugan activated. "Naruto, you have Yasha's black bugs in your chakra as well."

Naruto's grin faded as he recalled visiting the hospital. "Hai. He didn't mean to, but they came in anyway."

"If I give you enough of them, you'll be Byakugan-proof too!" Yasha smirked while his thoughts took a dark turn._ 'Actually, it's more like they'll decide their number is great enough and rip you to bits. And I wouldn't be able to work out at what point they decide that. Eh, minor details.'_

"You probably have some too, Hinata-_chan_," Yasha offered gleefully, emphasising the informal honorific suggestively.

Hinata's gaze shot down at her own body before squeaking in shock, both hands rapidly brushing over her heart. "I do!"

"I could try pulling them back, but you'll have to come with me outside the village."

"You're allowed outside the village?" Hinata repeated in surprise, the frantic brushing slowing down.

"I just go to the Hokage monument."

Naruto shot him a look which Yasha took a couple of seconds to decipher. _'Oh, duh, it's Naruto's favourite spot when he wants privacy. He probably didn't want me to share it.'_

So Yasha quickly did damage control. "I should probably go elsewhere, but it kinda removes the point of having village walls around you if you just exit every day. Who knows, Orochimaru could come and bite me on the butt."

Four adults scattered around the building simultaneously tensed up and their backs went ramrod straight.

"Who's Orochimaru?" Naruto asked blankly. Hinata looked equally confused and nodded her confusion at the statement.

Yasha felt like face-palming. _'Baka, baka, baka, baka, baka! He's in bingo books, but those aren't public information! What next, scream your sponsor thinks you're going to meet him while you carry out your objectives? With enough certainty to share his details with you?'_

His mind raced, luckily at full capability, as he did damage control again and spoke, wording it carefully. "An enemy of Konoha I'll probably have to face at some point. I haven't met him, and he's not going to be around soon, as far as I know."

_'Oh Kami, I nearly said 'next few years' instead of 'soon', and there's no way to recover from that!'_

"What's he like?" Naruto asked curiously. "How do you know about him?"

_'Do you work for the ANBU tail, Naruto?!'_ Yasha screamed inside his own head even as he began to answer offhandedly. "He's one of the three Konoha Sannin. They're near the level of Kage. He's taken a liking to snakes, and his personality is pretty much like one. Pure white skin, green eyes in snake slits, long black hair. An obsession with longevity."

"Wassat?" Naruto looked highly interested now. Probably their power level that got him.

"Living long. In his case, he wants to be immortal. And learn all ninja techniques there are."

"That's kinda cool," Naruto mused. Yasha gazed at him perturbed, knowing Orochimaru would be one of his biggest enemies, so the blond clarified. "The learning all techniques. Not the immortal part, that's just cowardice."

"Actually, that's the part I agree with," Yasha disagreed freely. His hole with Orochimaru knowledge was dug already, he just had to stop digging and distract. "The idea of dying from too much life is just counter-intuitive. It's inefficient, I don't like it."

"Inefficient?" The blond boy looked confused, another strip of egg handsomely donning his face.

"Well yes. If a life is naturally expiring, whilst its subjects attempt to revert that, that's the most obvious example of counter-productive evolution ever."

Naruto nodded, eyes glazed in a way that showed he clearly didn't fully understand.

"It's like stabbing yourself in order to motivate yourself in a fight. It doesn't make sense," Yasha explained.

"Oh." And like that, the glazed look vanished, and complete understanding appeared, much to Yasha's bemusement. "But wouldn't we run out of food if everyone never died?"

"Sure, but you guys can starve. I'm too cool to die," Yasha declared shamelessly as he went back into the bedroom to change to less holey clothes.

The two left behind glanced at each other, perturbed, before a distant yell sounded.

"OW! Shit!"

Naruto started after him with a worried look, but then paused with a knowing smirk. "Did you just…?"

"Yes, I stepped on the fucking glass!" Yasha snapped back at him.

The blond bent over laughing as Hinata stared at him, mystified.

* * *

"I feel I should leave it here," Yasha pondered contemplatively, staring down at the broken lightbulb glass he was sitting next to. Naruto was sat beside him, imitating his stance, with an expression of equal thoughtfulness beside him. "It's a good conversation piece."

"Hmm. And it would help with unwanted guests." Naruto tried his best to duplicate his housemate's tone, and received an approving grin as the two settled into their roles.

Hinata stared on in complete bewilderment at the broken glass on the floor and the two barefoot boys – were they serious? Leaving something like that on the floor?

Yasha had dressed and there was no blood on the glass, a testament to his bloodline. He had then just plonked down next to it and started staring at it.

"It's rather unusual. Much like our esteemed selves." Yasha tapped his lip in deep thought.

Naruto's grin widened before he hastily suppressed it to remain in character. "Quite. There is much to gain from its pre… presence." He struggled a bit on the last word, it wasn't one he used a lot.

Yasha nodded shortly. "Indeed. It is most invigorating to so openly portray our unique minds to elevate our inferior audience to a realisation of part of our natural greatness."

Hinata felt like she should interrupt the parading of egos, but couldn't muster the courage to do it. Yasha was a bit too frightening, and Naruto was… well, _Naruto_.

Naruto was confused by Yasha's flowery wording, even though he was trying to impersonate it. "I find this train of thought most desirable."

Yasha nodded again in agreement. "Of course; it is an idea from our superior minds. We must endeavour to overcome our weariness of these mere mortals and persist in our debasing attempts at impersonating humanity."

Hinata finally spoke up to bring a halt to the bizarre conversation. "Ano… yo-you want to le-leave broken glass on the flo-floor?"

The two stoic gazes turned towards her, one obviously compressing a grin, the other looking quite passive.

"Certainly," Yasha replied stoically, reminding her of her father, and not in a good way. The level of posh speech was beyond what even the Hyuuga were used to. "It is an act which will separate us from our peers and set us clearly in our well-deserved place. We are gods among men."

Hinata stared in disbelief at the assured way he said it. It was almost like he wasn't joking.

"I suppose my skin needs replenishment. I shall retire to the Hokage monument forthwith."

Naruto's face crinkled as he lost grip on his role at that last word. "_'Forthwith'?!_"

Yasha observed him gravely as he stood up. "Yes, Naruto-san. Forthwith."

Naruto shook his head and got out of the role. Hinata found herself relieved – for some reason, having Naruto act so formally really was a unsettling experience. "Let's go, then. _Forthwith,_" the blond added sarcastically.

"Indeed, let us depart, dattebayo." Yasha's tone was completely unshaken in spite of the contrast of the childish term spoken in a formal way.

Hinata started giggling in a way made high-pitched and hysterical from trying to suppress it. Naruto looked an odd mixture of scandalised and gleeful at Yasha's use of the term.

The three started out, Hinata still trying to hold in her giggles and growing more red-faced.

"If you faint, Hinata-chan, I'm going to drag you along by your arm and your clothes will get dirty," Yasha informed her cheerfully.

"He hasn't said 'seriously' yet. That means he's not serious," Naruto whispered to her helpfully, at a volume she was fairly certain Yasha had heard. "When Yasha really means what he says, he always says that."

It wasn't a particularly articulate wording, but it did make Hinata relax a little. She still wasn't familiar enough with Yasha to know when he was joking or not.

The three walked in companionable silence, Hinata attempting to trail behind a few paces back, but Yasha would always stop walking until she was within arm's reach. Naruto didn't catch on why for half of the journey, but automatically copied and observed Yasha's pausing with a silent interest.

_'Good, he's learning.'_ Yasha smiled to himself. Naruto wasn't screaming about something or even commenting on the irregular pausing Yasha was doing; he was trying to work it out himself. Yasha's smile drifted as he saw a pregnant woman, however, and his thoughts went back to scheming.

Hinata's face remained a red colour as she was seen walking side-by-side with her crush, but managed to keep from fainting in lieu of Yasha carrying out his threat. The only other option was Naruto carrying her, and she couldn't risk thinking about that. Either boy carrying her through town would cause her father to… she wasn't sure, nothing so audacious had ever happened. But it would be horrible.

Suddenly there was a flicker of movement and all three tensed, two making startled squeaks as an ANBU appeared in front of them on a bowed knee, holding three scrolls to Yasha.

"If you have additional information on a certain topic, the Hokage requests it," he said bluntly, his professional tone somewhat mechanicalised from his mask.

Yasha took the scrolls with a bemused look and the ANBU flickered and vanished again. _'The Hokage isn't intervening despite my talking about Orochimaru? Okay, it was fairly common knowledge, even a poor spy network could get that much, but it's not relevant to my mission at all. Orochimaru is certainly not within the village walls, and he's not relevant to any of the objectives I told the Hokage. It's obvious it's not related. Why isn't he interrogating me?'_

Yasha turned and fixed the two shocked kids with a grin. "I have friends in high places," he explained and carried on walking.

* * *

"Your recommendation, Shikaku-san?" the Third asked.

Shikaku had come within minutes (_'Thank Kami he doesn't have Kakashi's punctuality,'_ Sarutobi thought) and took in the new report about Yasha's talk on Orochimaru, only his slouch lessening and slight frown indicating how hard he was thinking. The Third had opted to describe Yasha's complete actions, bar his interaction with Shisui and knowledge of the Uchiha coup.

Shikaku offered his summary. "He's got information about people that are not relevant to his objectives. It's not worrying for it to come from the sponsor, who clearly has a spy network, which, from what you've told me, is equal to being on the high council."

The Hokage nodded assent as the Nara continued, "Why the sponsor would tell him is anyone's guess. But the sponsor has already established to not think things out well anyway. It's possible he attempted to make up for a lack of planning with excess information. He had no decent plan to get into the village despite the spies within, but he has extra information…"

Shikaku considered some more, before concluding: "No, this is suspicious. The sponsor isn't so foolish to give extra incriminating evidence. Either Yasha has extra objectives involving Orochimaru somehow, or for some reason the sponsor expects Orochimaru to become a problem."

The Hokage sat down heavily. "This isn't welcome news."

"No. It's most troublesome," Shikaku said his trademark word rather heartily.

"Your recommendation, then?" The Hokage repeated, taking a soothing puff on his pipe.

"Interrogation. But given he's easily the most connected to Naruto, and with his mind seal, we must be delicate. I suggest two things: investigate the mind seal, test its limits. It should be inspected at least; a Yamanaka can surely do that much, even if it is volatile to Yasha's access of his memories, it may not be so to another mind. The planning for infiltration was poor, so his seal design may be poor as well.

"Secondly, interrogation by vocal questions. Even if the seal is dangerous, or his bloodline resists it, vocally asking should only describe more about the sponsor, even minor details will assist Jiraiya-sama's investigation."

The Hokage hummed thoughtfully. "Alright. Who do you recommend for the second one?"

"Well, I'm feeling the need to play some shōgi, and Yasha has been trying to get me on his good side, so he can get Nara training. He'll open up, out of politeness if nothing else, and certainly won't refuse a game."

The Hokage snorted at the excuse to play shōgi with a new partner. And like a Nara, he had provided good reasoning to slack off like that. "One other item of detail. He's asked for information about genjutsu basics, to apparently save lives."

Shikaku frowned, the Jounin Commander's brain spinning into high gear again. "Genjutsu?"

"His bloodline automatically resists all genjutsu. It's unusual he'd want to cast it, much less on a level only civilians and genin would be susceptible to, but Yasha insists genjutsu basics will save lives otherwise going to die. He also wants me to lose the ANBU tail."

The Nara looked up briefly. "You didn't comply."

"No, I said I'll consider it. I've already sent him the genjutsu scrolls, though."

Shikaku hummed as he thought, before a look of shock crossed his face. "No. It's not just genin. His bloodline will allow him to control much more powerful opponents."

"What?" The Hokage stood up rapidly, noticing the uncharacteristically high amount of tension Shikaku's voice had.

Shikaku explained rapidly. "His bloodline controls minds, obvious from telepathy. It can change chakra flow, hence his genjutsu resistance. Put those two together – if he puts a genjutsu on someone, using his bloodline, he can literally force their chakra flow to remain in the genjutsu state…"

The Hokage's face whitened. "That's…"

"Easily A-Rank, if not S-Rank. A genjutsu that is enforced and can't be broken will defeat any enemy it's caught inside."

"So with genjutsu, he goes from E-Rank to S-Rank?!" the Hokage spluttered.

"You may want to retrieve those genjutsu scrolls, if you still are questioning his loyalty," Shikaku instructed sarcastically. "How long has he had them?"

"A few minutes. Bird!"

An ANBU with a bird mask, one of the Hokage's guard squad, appeared in the room. "Hai."

"Contact Lion. Ask him if Yasha has read the scrolls."

The ANBU bowed her head slightly. "As you wish."

Shikaku inspected the empty space before chuckling. "He's very clever if he's worked it out by himself."

"Don't I know it." The Hokage's expression held a begrudging respect for the brunette stowaway. "Despite a lack of an infiltration plan, he's still managed to get into a perfect place for all his mission objectives."

Shikaku nodded before his brain caught onto something. "Hold on, his genjutsu resistance – surely that would mean a mind seal wouldn't work?"

Sarutobi fixed him with a shocked glance. "It can't be…"

"It just might," Shikaku sighed. "Maybe if he was willing to receive the seal, the defence would be cancelled. But there's also the possibility mind seal techniques might not work at all, same as genjutsu. The seal could be a complete fake."

"Hmm. It's possible." The Professor considered his lifetime of knowledge on the topics, but nothing said it was completely impossible. After all, this sort of bloodline was unprecedented, even Aburame couldn't be compared with it.

The ANBU reappeared, tone quick and precise. "Hokage-sama: Yasha has not read the scrolls, solely carrying them. He is en-route to the Hokage monument to use his bloodline to heal his injuries from yesterday. ETA seven minutes."

All the information they needed to hear in seconds. The Hokage enjoyed taking reports from his ANBU far more than inexperienced chuunin. He glanced over at the Nara Clan Head as the ANBU awaited another order silently behind them.

The black-haired man tapped his lips thoughtfully. "I would like to see his regenerative ability. It's highly contrastive with his bloodline's normal operation."

The Third realised that was true, and it interested him as well. He'd only heard of Yasha's ability; and despite being able to track him on his first night, the crystal ball's _Tōmegane no Jutsu_ [Telescope Technique] didn't work on him, and it didn't work inside buildings anyway. From what Shikaku had reported the killing intent and fear induced by the bloodline was off the scale; and Sarutobi _had_ felt the range of it.

Glancing at the drawer which held his chakra-infused crystal ball, and the current papers – requests for extra hospital equipment – he made his decision and nodded shortly.

"Let's go."

* * *

Yasha was humming tunelessly to himself as he cradled the three scrolls under one arm, ascending the Hokage monument steps. The companionable silence had become shocked whispers between the other two and then stunned silence. Hinata had even forgotten her embarrassment by the shock of seeing ANBU, under the Hokage's direct command, kneeling to Yasha.

She had noticed Yasha had tensed up as well, which suggested he wasn't expecting it, but he recovered quickly enough to make a joke about it.

If what Yasha theorised was correct, his genjutsu would be incredibly strong, a huge assist to his abilities. He was quite cheerful despite the slip with Orochimaru; partly for the scrolls, and partly for the awed looks the two were giving him from the back. The twinges of pain from various parts of his raw skin didn't do much to get rid of his cheer.

He had originally stopped using his technique so Naruto wouldn't associate the darkness summon with him, but clearly that decision had been reverted already. Naruto didn't appear to notice the KI from the area around him, nor the darkness itself, but he had to have Naruto check for shadows, so the boy obviously knew too much of what was going on to hide it.

The alternative outcomes to yesterday had one or both of them dying; and they wouldn't even find a full corpse to bury. Yikes. No, this was definitely a better solution.

Regenerative abilities were simply him shoving chakra to limbs, like a bulb lighting up. The darkness then responded, pooled around the new areas, and healed any discrepancies. He had found that out by accident yesterday, but it was a pleasantly easy way to use regeneration.

_'Who knows, it might not even release killing intent,'_ he thought dryly. But he couldn't risk it inside town on the odd chance it did; if it did, half the town would be staring at him. What little the town _had_ seen of his bloodline had had them staring at him with a similar fear to Naruto.

He gazed up at the sun and clear skies with a frown. Darkness techniques worked much better in the dark. Light confused the particles, like white-out for snow countries – white-out being the term where sunlight reflects off the snow so brightly you get temporarily blinded.

And the particles were used to swarming; so being outside a swarm was like having your whole family ripped away. Not pleasant. _'But maybe I'm just anthropomorphising them…'_

The two stared at him expectantly, the awe they had had fading. Unbeknownst to them, ten extra pairs of eyes stared at him as well. His ANBU tail, the Hokage's guard ANBU, the Nara Clan Head and the Hokage himself were watching closely.

"Yosh." He unceremoniously pulled off his top, making most of the onlookers flinch.

Focusing, he made the Ram seal, to help his chakra go to a pattern he recognised, and then pushed towards his sore skin. He heard some sort of sizzling, purring sound, which was slightly worrying, but there was no pain, so he didn't break the technique, flaring the part under his sore areas carefully.

"Yay," he declared, as he looked up to see most of the areas he had targeted had regrown. His chakra levels were barely affected at all; well, he hadn't sent it out of his body, so it wasn't _used_ per se.

"That's so cool, Yasha-kun, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed, prodding at the new skin.

Yasha frowned at him despite the ticklish action making him want to smile. "Just because it's daylight, doesn't mean my techniques won't target you."

The blond leaped back rapidly and carefully counted his shadows, a movement Hinata looked puzzled by. Yasha refocused again and worked on the remaining missing skin. He had analysed his face in the bedroom mirror and was somewhat impressed by his torn-up look; it gave him the look of a burn victim. Like he'd been in a serious battle against a Katon user.

He probably wouldn't have healed his face until he saw the patchy look; partly because he was curious, and partly because he knew that was what the Hokage had seen today and it had led to him ignoring the mention of Orochimaru _and_ giving him the scrolls he needed out of some kind of respect.

If all it took was a burn victim look, he'd make sure it'd happen a couple more times, under the pretence of training accidents. Guilt was a good manipulation tactic, particularly survivor's guilt. Sasuke had proved that.

Hinata watched thoughtfully as skin seemed to form, like water draining from piles of sand. There were the slightest sounds from it, a sizzling sound, but no steam or gas of any sort was made. Activating the Byakugan had only added that the darkness swarmed in reaction to his chakra, but minimal expelling of chakra was actually done around the areas. Yasha's chakra control was rather bad, judging from the large amount it was fluctuating.

Watching skin regrow was interesting.

But then her Byakugan died.

It just… stopped dead. The entire technique vanished, and Hinata _knew_ she had plenty of chakra left. She used the full set of 'partial chakra vessel enlargement' hand seals and activated it again, but in seconds, it had turned off again. There was no pain, and she had analysed the area to see if someone was somehow triggering it, but Yasha was focusing on himself and Naruto made no movement at all, just staring at Yasha.

Turning it on again, she turned away from the two, and it stayed alive for slightly longer, until she looked at Yasha with it again. Then it turned off in seconds.

She soon realised what it was – the darkness particles in her system were defending Yasha. She had come with Yasha here to get him to remove them, but now she had to insist.

It was a horrific setback to know that if Yasha ever fought her, her Byakugan would just die off.

"Ca-Can you get the bu-bugs out of me?"

"I can try." Yasha grinned at her. He went to put his hands on her and paused with a frown. "Uh, I'm not sure where to put my hands," he said frankly. "I'll be aiming for your heart, so that'll mean touching your um… breasts."

Both other kids blushed scarlet, Hinata wobbling on her feet and nearly fainting. Several members of the adult watchers suppressed snorts of laughter, with varying amounts of success. Yasha meanwhile looked vaguely unimpressed, with a slight red blush still rising on his face despite his best efforts.

"Um…" Hinata wanted to refuse, but if it was interfering with her Byakugan, her father would probably go straight to Yasha and demand he remove them there and then, and she wanted that far less, having the physical contact happen under her father's glare.

If she didn't remove it at all, the next spar that she did with a Hyuuga would reveal it. Yasha didn't look like he cared whether it was removed personally, but he'd probably comply with her father's demands, judging from the respect he showed to the Hyuuga guard yesterday.

She settled for nodding, not trusting her voice.

Yasha made the Snake seal and unhesitantly put his right hand on her heart, where she had seen most of the tiny things were. His left hand coiled into a Ram, reminding him of when he had remotely exploded the fruit cart on his way in.

"Anddddd… pull," he said, mostly for her benefit.

He attempted to mentally reach out into her system, and drag them back, but there was no response he could sense from them, just her heart pounding at a faster rate under his hand.

He injected some chakra instead, and she flinched away before stepping back. He injected it again, retaining the chakra link between his hand and her body, and then pulled it back. "How about now?"

She activated her Byakugan. "Um… it's even wo-worse."

Her heart, or rather, the vessels around it, were now far more crowded with the darkness, with the chakra mostly obstructed from sight. It was quite ugly to look at. He'd made it at least ten times worse. She reasoned Yasha was simply not good enough with chakra control; and every scrap of his chakra he left in her system brought darkness to it.

And her heart looked like she had a deep poison affecting it. There was no change to the flow, though, she would have detected that much from her experience with Jyuuken's effects.

"Hmm." Yasha retracted his hand thoughtfully and put it to his cheek, scratching absent-mindedly. "Maybe I can just pull it back by pulling all the dar- bugs I can get in from the whole area."

"How do you do that?" Naruto asked, face still somewhat red from what was happening.

"I just mould more chakra," Yasha explained, sitting down in the meditative pose and motioning for Hinata to do the same. She complied, somewhat rapidly. "This could make it even worse, I guess," he warned her.

She said that was "fine" in a very resigned tone.

He made a Snake seal and moulded more chakra, pulling his spirit and body energies towards each other, visualising them swirling together like water around a pipe, before merging into one indistinguishable blob. As he did so, all the darkness in his body began to edge towards the new chakra in his body's center greedily.

The Hokage flinched. For just the briefest moment, he saw a flicker of movement in the trees very close to him moving towards Yasha. Naruto watched mystified as Yasha's skin went slightly darker, the outline of his shadow flickering and changing noticeably.

There was no KI released, though. The pressure had been created, but it was weak and prompted barely any emotional response, much like a normal chakra build-up. Midway between Genin and Chuunin at a guess, and the Hokage could guess the range it could be felt was barely twenty metres.

Hinata gave a strangled gasp of surprise, her Byakugan still active and fixed on herself, where she could see the little darkness particles moving towards her feet at a steady, slightly increasing pace, her heart's chakra vessels drained of them in seconds.

There were some trailing behind her eyes, as well, and these began to move down too. _'Those were the ones affecting my Byakugan earlier,'_ she reasoned.

"Let me know when it's all gone," Yasha requested, breathing hard from the effort. She looked up at his chakra and saw around the area, it was far darker than the bright sunlight should make it. She couldn't make it out completely, but knew there was darkness all around Yasha, trailing along over the ground and darkening it. Her instincts were pricking, telling her to _step away, step away_ from the darkened ground. But it was obviously impossible to hover in mid-air, and every single surface in sight had been flooded with the insects and darkened.

She finally remembered what she was meant to be doing and checked her body again. The last few visible particles had vanished, dispersing from her feet into the ground and heading Yasha's way, before they separated into groups too small for her to see.

"Yasha-kun…" she didn't have to say the rest, it was obvious.

Yasha cut off his chakra moulding with a strained look, and Hinata used the opportunity to check out his chakra channels.

They were absolutely _saturated_ with the dark bugs, to the point no blue chakra was visible. And his skin had darkened noticeably – he had gained a slightly tanned look. Although the Byakugan couldn't see the chakra's version of capillaries, it was obvious that the bugs was even small enough to fit in there, and his extra moulding had caused more to inhabit those tiny chakra channels.

"Did it work?" he asked, panting slightly.

"Hai," she said with some relief. Having carnivorous bugs swarming _inside her heart_ wasn't something she ever wanted to experience again.

"Great." Yasha grinned back at her, and she suddenly realised he was quite handsome. She could see why he was rivalling Sasuke with the number of adoring fans since his arrival; his grin was captivating when he wasn't attempting to creep her out with it.

Naruto-kun though, his chakra was so much nicer to look at… and his pure devotion and determination to overcome was far more exuberant than anyone she had seen. Yasha didn't even compare in those aspects.

Although, the ease she could see his adoration for Yasha made her feel a bit guilty when she recalled why she had originally gone to check after Naruto-kun. When Yasha had turned up yesterday and not even mentioned him, despite their living together and what she thought was a well-needed close relationship, well…

One suspicious thought had led to another and she became quite worried about Naruto-kun being manipulated or even hurt by Yasha. The new classmate was clearly experienced with manipulating, from the way he made her spill the beans on her feelings for Naruto-kun in seconds, and defusing Iruka-sensei despite that he was completely in the wrong in the scenario.

But for that knowledge, Naruto-kun had no change in attitude towards her, being as socially awkward and polite as he always was to his female classmate. Her heart wished it would be something more, but she was immeasurably grateful Yasha hadn't told him about it. She could barely tolerate being around Naruto-kun without blushing; she was certain if he knew how she felt, the embarrassment would become far worse – especially since he would be embarrassed as well.

With Naruto-kun's clumsy character and loud way of speaking, her clan would find out through the grapevine of the relationship if it grew to anything more or Yasha mentioned it to anyone. She hadn't even voiced her crush to Hanabi-chan, the family member she most loved. She wasn't ready for that. Her clan would never approve, not until Naruto-kun fulfilled his dream and became Hokage – then their opinions would completely reverse; a sickening fact but one she been forced to accept. Until then, she just had to get stronger, strong enough to protect him.

Her brief moment of determination died as quickly as it was formed, as countless memories of insults and disapprovals assaulted it. Her father had never gazed upon her with anything other than a slight frown of over-taxed expectancy. She couldn't tell if he wanted her to do well for her sake, or for the clan's, and under his gaze she always felt like she was doing things wrong. It made her so hesitant she missed opportunities and held back in every spar; a minute mistake in striking tenketsu could mean death instead of disabling.

With a heavy heart she forced the gratefulness back and smiled back at him, and he frowned back. "Arigatou, Ya-Yasha-kun."

"No problem," he said, still frowning, as if he had somehow picked up on her heavy thoughts. But the next thing he said confirmed it. "Is there something else I can do for you, Hinata-chan?"

The honorific was spoken without any of the _suggestive_ tone he had used before. It held genuine concern, something even Naruto had picked up on.

"No… arri-arigatou, Yasha-kun," she repeated shyly.

"In that case, do you want to stay or leave? Naruto's going to be working with me on some very basic skills, re-visiting it, so you won't be very entertained."

She considered it, but the drive to get away from Naruto after prolonged exposure and recover was too strong, so she bid a hasty (albeit polite) goodbye and left.

Naruto looked after her until she was out of sight, then turned to look at him, a thoughtful look on his face as he turned back to Yasha. "You covered up that I wasn't good at the basics."

"Yep." Yasha nodded at him, striding onto the Fourth's head. The thick stone spikes gave a good place to put your back against and relax, so he did so, adjusting to get some of the mid-morning sunlight. He had slept in, but it wasn't quite noon.

"Arigatou, Yasha-kun," Naruto found himself echoing the girl's words.

Yasha grinned up at him. "Not a problem. Even though I know you couldn't do the same for me, I know you'd try."

Naruto pouted, but conceded the point. Yasha's ability with words was far beyond him. Half the stuff he had said during the talk about lightbulb glass was foreign to the blond. But Hinata didn't look confused by the words, just by what he meant, so he deduced they were real words.

"You're doing so much for me…" Naruto sighed, running his hand through his spikey hair and scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I can't do anything to help you, but I want to."

Yasha patted the ground beside the spike next to his. "Don't wallow in guilt for too long. If I have to manipulate you, even to get you out of guilt, I would get the Hokage upset."

"Jiji?" Naruto asked blankly. "I'm just an Academy student. He likes me, and he visits every couple of months or so… but he won't care about stuff like that. And anyway, I trust you, dattebayo."

Yasha grinned, not going to disagree, it would just confuse the blond. "You trust anyone who gives you the time of day. That kind of trust isn't worth anything to the Third Hokage."

Naruto's face set in a stubborn look. "It is too, dattebayo!"

Yasha sighed, rolling his eyes, causing the blond's lip to jut out further.

"If I'm not mistaken, I've not been trusted completely since I got here. But if I tell you to leave the village, what will you say?"

The blond blinked at him, not seeing the connection. "No way. The village is my home."

Yasha nodded at him. "Yep. But which building? Or is it people?"

Naruto thought hard. "It's… people. But I like Ichiraku's, dattebayo."

"Right. So if I was going to be killed by Konoha if you didn't leave, would you leave with me?"

Naruto's expression froze, fear building in his eyes before relaxing. "Jiji wouldn't do that."

Yasha shrugged, gazing listlessly into the sky. "That's not the point. It's a scenario that might happen, even if it's unlikely."

"It's not _unlikely_. It'll _never_ happen. Hokage-jiji wouldn't do that, dattebayo." And the stubborn look returned.

Yasha rolled his eyes slightly at the naïvety. "Great. So as long as your ideals of the Hokage are perfectly correct, you won't mind if I go down and kill a few villagers?"

"Huh?"

"Well, if I did that, then I'd have to flee the village. And I wouldn't leave you on your own, so I'd have to stay, and with my chakra signature, I'd be tracked down in less than an hour, and be executed for murder."

Naruto looked horrified. "You wouldn't kill the villagers!"

Yasha frowned at him. "Don't act like you know me perfectly, Naruto. We've known each other for two days; you can't get an entire personality from that. I would know."

The shocked look he got from saying that first sentence hurt him a lot, but he needed to keep his distance. He only knew the blond a couple of days; his subconscious just wasn't satisfied Naruto was trustworthy. "The world isn't as nice as you want it. That's why I came to this village, to get stronger, stop any enemies."

Naruto nodded at him. "But you wouldn't attack villagers. You'd never do that. So the Hokage would never let people kill you. So I don't need to worry."

"You heard him!" Yasha announced to the empty sky theatrically, well aware his conclusive comment had hit the unseen ANBU tail, but less aware about the additional six watchers.

"You're being stupid," Naruto told him bluntly.

Yasha's initial anger at the insult was instantly suppressed as he easily worked out what Naruto meant. "Yeah, getting worked up over things that are so unlikely to happen it's negligible, is just a waste of time, huh?"

"Yeah. You're just going to get depressed." Naruto's tone was surprisingly sombre.

Yasha grinned at him, forsaking his grave thoughts. "Well. You got to memorise most of the two syllabaries yesterday, so I'll give you quick test today. If it's passable we're move on to hand sign language and I'll rent a book on kanji. There's a few thousand kanji for you to learn the meanings of."

Naruto looked overwhelmed. "A few _thousand?!_"

"You don't have to do all of those. Most people only pick all of them up by when they're fifteen or something. Just skim kanji today, we've got about a month… or maybe a week…" Yasha's tone became sombre as well, something that made Naruto glance over.

"Well! I might die in a week or so. But whatever; I could die in two seconds. Let's think positively and hope I get reincarnated as a Kage or something. Go to a new page, write down the syllabaries, all the kana you can remember."

With that, he popped open a genjutsu scroll and handed the stunned Naruto his notebook.

* * *

"Hmm… Shikaku-san?"

The Nara analysed the person they had been watching thoughtfully. It had told him a lot; the intelligence gave him a skill at emotional scrutiny comparable to a Hyuuga.

"I think…" he began, carefully wording what he said, "…he's definitely withholding things, and he's uncertain of his own ability to complete the mission. But his heart's in the right place with Naruto… and for all his intelligence, Naruto can manipulate _him_ just as well as the opposite. He meant that conversation about leaving the village for our benefit, or at least knowing the tail would hear it. And it seems like what he is withholding from us is very involved with whatever mission he's on, something planned or predicted for the immediate future. Within the week, hence his change in attitude when he said that."

The Hokage nodded. "You'd better question quickly, then, Shikaku-san. After what Naruto's said about trust, I can't take the scrolls or Yasha away in front of him."

The Jounin Commander nodded grimly, then travelled at an uncharacteristically rapid pace away from Yasha. When he had got to a good distance, he exited the trees and started lazily walking towards them, as if on a morning wander. He had to make sure Yasha didn't read any more of that genjutsu scroll than necessary – it was far too risky. Yasha didn't seem completely focused on learning it, else he'd be reading it on the way to the monument, but it was obviously a priority for him.

The Hokage was very capable of controlling his emotions, but he felt an uncanny desire to _personally_ watch Yasha. He dismissed the emotion and covertly made his way back to the Tower, with his guard squad around him. If Shikaku Nara couldn't find out secrets over a game of shōgi, no man could.

* * *

**AN:** The smartest man in Konoha vs a twelve-year-old… who will win?


	16. It's not just a game

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 16: It's not just a game**_

* * *

**AN:** Shōgi is the game of kings! Although I've never played a match in my life.  
Just going from the opinions of the Nara here. They're smart, right? They would know.

Anyway, some good character development on Yasha in here. His (philosophical) view of the world, and unfortunately makes Yasha rather volatile with his morals. Makes for good suspense writing, but lousy if you like being in control of him. Or the Kyuubi, as this chapter explores…

* * *

"Shikaku-san?" Yasha blinked up at the pineapple-haired jounin as the adult slouched over.

He looked rather bored. He had looked like that yesterday, as well. "Yasha-kun. How would you like to play a game of shōgi with me?"

Yasha frowned, glancing at Naruto and back at the Nara, something the keen brown eyes didn't miss. Prioritising Naruto as worthy of an opinion. "Here?"

Shikaku gave a slight shrug. "The pieces are at the compound. Naruto can come along as well."

Naruto looked at the adult uncertainly. "What's shōgi? Is it like hide-and-seek?"

Yasha smirked at him. "It's a board game, Naruto, very complicated stuff."

Naruto shrugged, looking at his book unappreciatively. "I don't mind coming if you want to go. But I'm not playing a game like that."

"Alright then, sure, Shikaku-san."

Yasha knew just telling Naruto how shōgi was essentially the same as battle planning would pique his interest into playing it, but the game wouldn't suit the blond at all. Firstly, it required very little physical action, and his overflowing chakra/hyperactive nature would detest that; and secondly, he would most likely lose against anyone who was at all decent at it, and he couldn't bluster through the loss with stamina. He was used to pushing his reserves and resources to get a win; and in shōgi, you just couldn't do that.

So he'd insist on rematches to the point Yasha was coerced into playing/helping him to improve his shōgi skills, and that was a lot of time wasted on something that wasn't _really_ ninja training. Maybe once Yasha could shadow clone, he'd consider it, but as is… no way.

The brunette stood up deftly, re-sealing the scroll and tucking it under his arm with the other two. "After you, Shikaku-san."

The Nara nodded and began an unhurried stride to the Nara compound.

* * *

Shikamaru and his wife were both outside the house. The former was probably lazing with Chouji, and the latter shopping.

Shikaku's house was rather basic, as could be expected from the lazy Nara, although the clan head house was a somewhat larger one than the others in the Nara compound. The compound's design was spacious, with wide paved streets that seemed void of people, and there was barely any sound to be heard anywhere. Even the conversations were softly spoken and quite slow-paced, from what Yasha had managed to overhear.

It gave the compound almost a ghost town feel, but this was balanced out with very soft classical music playing from somewhere Yasha couldn't locate, and plenty of leafy trees at the corners and sides of the walls. It ended up feeling somewhat serene and Yasha kind of liked it, for the same reason he liked the Hokage monument – you could hear someone coming from pretty far away, and there was plenty of space you could sit in and have empty air all around.

The soothing rustling of the leaves was most of the sound around them as they had settled into Shikaku's garden, the rest being water running from a pipe that was constantly filling a small stone pool in the middle of the grassy garden. If you strained, you could also make out the music very faintly in the distance.

The houses were small, squarish and simple, with wide gardens surrounded by plain 1.5m-high cream-yellow bricked walls. The gardens tended to be all but empty grass plains, with trees dotted around, almost as excuses for the Nara to have a large compound; the ones further from the forest had the shishi odishi contraptions set up by their pools. A few of gardens also presented attempts at flowerbeds, but those were simple too. Most just stuck with leafy trees.

Along the side of the compound was a deciduous forest, with a series of posts to section it off, although there was no fence between it. The Nara Clan Head's house was one of the ones beside it, with part of the house overlooking it.

"How familiar are you with shōgi?" Shikaku asked as he set up his pieces.

Naruto sat beside them, still dutifully scribbling kana in his notebook. His hand had fully repaired itself over the night, but he made sure when it started aching he took a break. The last thing he wanted was going back to the hospital and seeing a less friendly doctor. There was only so much Yasha could do for ensuring he got a good service.

"Not very," Yasha admitted freely. "I've only played a few times."

_'Obviously,'_ Shikaku thought as Yasha set up his pieces in a random order. The layout of the pieces was as it should be, but he didn't follow the traditional setup pattern, so that spoke for his inexperience.

Yasha confirmed Naruto's syllabaries were good enough, only a couple of kana missing, and handed the blond a book on the ninja hand signs, which his friend took with a practiced grimace. _'He's not keen on reading, then. Maybe I can change that… but for now…'_

Yasha then recommended Naruto did the hand signs while quietly saying them out loud, to commit them to memory. The blond learnt best through physically doing something, after all.

After about twenty minutes of the game, with Naruto murmuring different kana intermittently off to the side, Yasha made his first capture on Shikaku's pieces (a pawn), and a victory smile went across his face, much to the Jounin Commander's amusement. Shikaku was fairly certain the game would be over within the hour. The game was painfully easy to read.

Shikaku had distracted the black-haired boy from his genjutsu scrolls, but that wasn't the main reason for the game. With Shikaku's mastery, he was fairly certain he could drag the game out for hours, to keep interrogation carrying as long as he wanted. Yasha wanted training, so the Nara predicted he wouldn't leave the game early and risk offending him.

Shikaku hummed softly to break the silence. "So, Yasha, how is your chakra's spiritual to physical balance?"

Yasha's gaze moved up to him. He'd had that analysed during the second reset, while he was in Konoha with the Hokage's blessing, and so it was noted it on the instruction scroll. "Mostly spiritual. About ninety percent."

Shikaku blanched. That was a rarity almost _never_ seen but maybe once per generation. The indifferent way Yasha had said it meant he didn't know the significance of it. It highly suggested his bloodline was related to spiritual chakra, as the Nara shadow techniques were. Shadow techniques would be far easier for him to do than most Nara, as would medical techniques and mind-related techniques. That also explained most of his bloodline abilities straight off the bat… "And this darkness you control?"

Yasha coughed lightly. "Better described as 'incredibly small carnivorous bug swarms'. But that's a bit of a mouthful, so I just call it Death Release. But yeah, it mostly looks like I'm controlling shadows themselves – the bugs get confused easily in any sort of good lighting, and they disguise themselves as shadows most of the time."

Shikaku raised an eyebrow at the slightly childish name, but he supposed it did fit. After all, just yesterday the boy nearly caused death upon himself with it. Normally, even jounin, with that level of chakra exhaustion and injuries, would still be bedfast for a few days. From what he'd heard from the Hokage, it had caused multiple fainting incidents this morning, and there had been a new bruise on his cheek (before he regenerated it), so he was still rather mortal.

"My question for you, Shikaku-san, do you ever play shōgi with half-minute move breaks?"

Shikaku raised both eyebrows at that. He hadn't even considered it; he only played his son and rarely, fellow Nara, all of which liked to think well in advance. That sort of crunch wasn't what he was used to, but it did bring the game far closer to a real battle scenario.

"I haven't, no, but it does sound like an interesting twist," he replied genially.

The two settled into their roles to trade question for question.

"How are you settling into Konoha?"

"It's very quiet, but there's a lot of darkness behind many smiles." Yasha's response was solemn and a bit too old for his age. The wind seemed to rustle ominously as he said it.

Shikaku silently moved a silver general without his facial expression changing, as if dismissing it as Yasha being dramatic, like most adults would have done. But it was a clue about the future, and it definitely was _not_ dismissed. Yasha had mentioned that darkness in Konoha before, albeit not to Shikaku, so it wasn't just drama.

Yasha frowned as a piece was captured. "How do Nara shadow techniques work? How does one put chakra into something that has no real dimensions?"

_'He's certainly direct with his questions, combatting the biggest issues first,' _Shikaku approved. "You have to be very adept with your own mentality. A stable mindset is needed – we Nara normally make sure we have a strong mental trait, one that isn't faked but a genuine part of our thinking. It assists us in attaching to our spiritual chakra, through our minds – which as you may know, minds are the basis for spiritual chakra – from our bodies, through our minds, to our spiritual chakra."

Yasha's expression contorted into a frown, clearly needing more answers, but he gamely let the Nara Clan Head ask his question first: "What darkness do you see behind the smiles?"

The boy's eyes took a glint of dark intelligence and his mouth curled into a twisted smile that Shikaku found rather disturbing, no doubt its intended effect. "Death, wanting to happen."

_'Not '__**waiting**__ to happen', but __**wanting**__. And he's ambiguous in a way that lets me think he's just talking about his distaste for the villagers' feelings for Naruto. He's undoubtedly good with concealing information… but he likes to show off his intelligence. If I press about a metaphor, I'll end up with more truth than he originally planned to reveal.'_

"So how is that mental trait enforced? By a mood or a phrase?"

Shikaku nearly flinched; the boy had caught the exact basis behind the technique in his first guess. Excess spiritual chakra normally meant high intuition as well; it was certainly not betraying him here.

Or the sponsor had a _seriously_ stronger spy network than previously thought; only a Nara member would know that, and no one would discuss that level of basics except with Nara children, of whom there hadn't been one young enough to have been taught it for years.

"Yes, a good guess. A personality trait, and a word, normally both tied together. That way, the mental mood, and the physical act of speaking the word related to the mood, ties the connection between physical chakra and the spiritual chakra. The subconscious trait, which affects emotions, forms the link between the mind and the spiritual chakra, and the conscious act of speaking forms the one between the body and mind."

Yasha's face cleared of its frown. "That makes sense," he murmured as another piece was captured. He had guessed at the way the technique worked, but it did seem obvious: emotions were spiritual as much as physical; a personality trait would exist in both, and the only thing left was connecting the physical to the spiritual. He wouldn't have come to the conclusion of using the mind as a go-between by himself, not for a good while.

Shikaku may be thrashing him at shōgi, but Yasha was well prepared to do a hundred games (and lose sorely each time), if he learnt this much. His pride could take it.

That mental trait thing also explained Shikamaru's constant use of 'troublesome' and ridiculously lazy attitude. It was as much a personality trait as it was an inherited discipline. How counter-intuitive, a _discipline_ to be _lazy_.

"So, what is the death waiting for?"

Yasha glanced over at his face searchingly, but Shikaku kept it placid. His voice was low and deliberate. "You won't have long to find out."

_'Well, that is as obvious and as foreboding as it comes,' _Shikaku thought in bewilderment, his eyes sharpened dangerously. '_There is murder planned within the week. Yasha knows of it, and is trying to get involved. He claims involvement in order to save them – but in all honesty, genjutsu would be the worst option for that, bar civilians, who he could save with his bloodline anyway. The only reason he couldn't use his bloodline was so he could remain hidden as he saved them; but why do that? I have my next two questions, Yasha.'_

"You said it assists, so, is it possible to use Nara techniques _without_ the personality trait or phrase?"

Shikaku nodded shortly. "Yes, but harder. Your chakra balance needs to strongly favour spiritual chakra, though, or you won't be able to connect to it without a great deal of difficulty."

"Perfect!" Yasha smiled, breaking out of his stiff game face. The fact he had high spiritual chakra was just what he needed right now.

Shikaku offered him a smile but his thoughts couldn't be further from smiling. He let Yasha's own smile fade away before he spoke. "Who is planning to perform the deaths?"

Yasha sighed, dragging the sound out. A pause followed, and Shikaku hoped he would answer.

"Two birds," the brunette vaguely answered: Itachi and Danzō. One summoned crows, the other was called a 'war hawk'.

Shikaku raised his eyebrow slightly. Yasha had gone completely ambiguous. _'Two __**birds**__? Why birds?'_

In less than ten seconds, his mind had ran through every single shinobi he had dealt with in Konoha. There weren't many connected to birds. The best he could come up with without extra research would be the Uchiha clan; they held bird contacts, although he wasn't certain who precisely. _'The Uchiha have been quite tense recently, but two with bird contracts are planning to commit murder? … and he thinks he can handle an __**Uchiha**__ of all things with __**genjutsu**__? No, something really doesn't add up about that. No clan is more equipped to break out of genjutsu than the Uchiha. There has to be at least one of those birds outside of that clan.'_

The more you pressed into the meaning of a metaphor, the more ambiguous it became; but that meant you could test it forever, but eventually, it'd stop being helpful and just become tedious for both parties. Put simply, Shikaku couldn't press it.

_'And if only two people were planning to commit murder, how the __**hell**__ does a spy network pick up on something that small? Is this related to the high council level secret he's already told the Hokage privately? I think I'm going to need to ask the Hokage about that, otherwise I could end up investigating two things and thinking there's just one, without knowing how to distinguish them.'_

Yasha asked his bit. "So how do you latch onto the spiritual chakra using the subconscious personality trait?"

"The standard way to move things to an order of control that's less conscious…"

"…repetition," they both said simultaneously, albeit one in a questioning tone.

Yasha smiled at him cheekily, attempting to scratch at his cheek but failing, switching to the other hand and having to shift his weight. Shikaku's eyes widened when he saw the reason why: the original choice of hand had no fingernails.

And no hair on it, either. At a jagged, undeliberate way, the arm hair went from normal thickness for a pre-teen to completely missing. It was as if someone had shaved it all off.

"Your hand, Yasha?" Shikaku found himself asking, then mentally hitting himself for ignoring the more pressing matter of upcoming attempted murder.

Yasha wordlessly held it out to him, and Shikaku ran his fingers over it analytically. Smooth and soft skin, not a single break or hard spot – the hairs just stopped.

Now Shikaku had two options: pretend he knew nothing about Yasha bar he wanted shadow training, or admit he knew about the injury's cause, and thus was in liaise with the ANBU, and thereby declare himself an investigator.

He would be revealed more if he didn't seem to be investigating (bar common interest any cautious shinobi would have in an outsider), so he opted for that. "How did you get this injury, Yasha-kun?"

Naruto glanced over at the word 'injury', then looked back, his cycle of murmurings and hand movements suspended rather noticeably.

Yasha rolled his eyes slightly as he had to explain again. "I used Death Release, pointing a string of chakra from this hand at a target. By default, Death Release marks me like a target. I then told it to attack, and forgot I was marked as well; since the darkness is attracted to my chakra, my hand with the string had the most amount of it. I forgot to release chakra around me to indicate I wasn't a target, so I had the delightful sensation of having the bugs inside me burn up my regenerative ability to heal it, and the ones outside rip my flesh to pieces."

Shikaku winced at the details. _'He's certainly not attempting to play down the extent of the injury. I wonder if that's wise to go into so much detail, as he wants to use his techniques with the Nara ones; making out his bloodline to be volatile wouldn't inspire people to help develop it further.'_

Yasha hid a smirk at the adult's wince. "The entire hand was vaporised to the bone, and once I regained control, I had to regenerate the whole thing from the wrist onwards. Burned through most of my Yang chakra to do it."

Shikaku nodded coolly, only put out mildly by Yasha's breezy way of discussing a near-fatal injury. Most kids would still be recovering from the trauma, but then, most kids weren't naming their bloodlines Death Release.

Yasha moved on and asked his next question. "Repetition, how does it help, though? Chakra and repeating, it would create a highly-used and strong neural pathway in the brain, but I don't see how you can latch onto it with chakra, not without strongly risking hurting yourself by probing at your own brain's chakra network."

_'He's again isolated the biggest problem impressively quickly.'_ Shikaku couldn't help but be impressed; it was comparable to the speed his son had had when he had started training him. "It's normally performed amongst experts who can revert or detect damage – or solid clones that can write about their attempts, with minimal effort for the original. I believe the first user of the Nara clan was highly intelligent, and well familiar with brain pathways. He recommended using the simplest commands and tweaks as you focused: push your neural pathways' chakra left, right, slightly, etc. With many hundreds of tests, he came to control his shadow."

Shikaku paused, moving a piece to capture one of Yasha's. There was no real way Yasha could win this match; he was far too below Shikaku's skill level. Unsurprisingly, the boy didn't appear too bothered by that. With Yasha's intelligence and fore-planning, Shikaku knew that was due to the information he was getting. Time for his own question.

"Have you been through near-death scenarios before?" he asked casually.

Yasha hummed in thought as he idly considered all the scenarios he had been threatened. "Not really, although I have killed two people. Maybe three."

"Not members of Konoha?" Shikaku hastened to ask, interrupting their question-for-question cycle.

Yasha blinked up at him, a smile quirking on his face. "Of course not. They were child abusers."

Shikaku's caution faded at that. That fully explained Yasha's lack of emotional disturbance with it; it must have happened long ago, and there wasn't really a better cause.

"If I met some inside Konoha, I'd probably do the same anyway," Yasha muttered, something Shikaku's quickly chakra-enhanced hearing picked up. The adult couldn't disagree, though. The idea of something happening to Shikamaru when he was smaller… Kami-sama knew how much that would affect his personality, even if the perpetuator was caught.

With that thought, Shikaku's gaze widened and he looked properly at Yasha, whose face held a darkened expression and the same, almost manic, glint in his eye. _'No, even if it was long ago – who would comment on child abuse or killing so casually? It would be said with at least __**some **__form of guilt or regret. Death is the most extreme measure possible, even for those people. How much has Yasha been twisted by what he'd done? Had the abuse been done to __**him**__?'_

Yasha's gaze flicked up at Shikaku, and there was no haunted expression, just a distant, wearied look. Shikaku hadn't seen that particular expression for a while, and that was when someone had forced their way over guilt… by separating themselves from the world and what happened in it.

In an instant, he had Yasha mentally pegged. His was the personality that regarded the world as not _quite_ meaningful; where if something went wrong, the real weight of the consequences would be reduced, as much as Yasha subconsciously wanted it to be. He could commit murder and be chucked in prison and consider it a mere nuisance on his 'current role in the system of life'. The jounin he had heard _that_ phrase from was now retired, but Shikaku knew he would never really break out of it.

It was a very easy trap that alienated all errors from whoever had it; even the error of falling into the trap itself. In a way, it was a coping mechanism, putting everything in a mental box was a tried and true method.

But in this trap, the box was the entire world. Everything truly evil that happened was discarded as meaningless and not part of the world that mattered; everything that was good, was put in the box, and Yasha would be a casual observer who filtered what came in, and then enjoyed the contents of the box.

It wouldn't be so bad except the distorted coping method meant suicide's meaning would be lost to Yasha as well. He'd happily sacrifice himself because that was his 'role in the system, as a good guy'. He'd take injury upon injury, do painful and questionably immoral things without anything but the slightest hesitation.

He might even do immoral acts with _glee_, thinking about how _fun_ it was to test how far he could stretch the role of the 'good guy' against 'the system'. And the worst of it was, this mindset could barely be confronted; Konoha valued its shinobi above all else, so it'd be hypocritical to tell him to be less inclined to sacrificing himself for his team or the village. And to scrap a coping mechanism entirely left someone very volatile, and being a ninja was no picnic.

Inoichi may have some helpful advice. Shikaku's notes he took on the jounin with this mindset eight years ago would help as well.

The distancing also meant Yasha would be harder to read than most; it meant Yasha wouldn't care about betraying important secrets when it suited him, but he _would_ care about being unable to fulfil his role. So he would guard the secrets by filtering his outward speech and mannerisms with experience gained from years of filtering _everything_ that had ever happened to him.

Certainly a tough nut to crack. Shikaku moved another piece, prolonging the game an extra ten moves. Yasha's strategies were fairly well thought out, no doubt about it, but his inexperience left them basic and his skill was very far behind Shikaku, who was easily the best shōgi player in Konoha.

Shikamaru was a close second, though, and his father was only too happy to admit that.

With Yasha's expert filtering of every experience, Shikaku could only play to one possibility: appealing to Yasha's desire to 'test the system'. If he did that, Yasha's way of testing it through Shikaku would be by slipping in slightly more information than usual. Yasha already did that, albeit half-consciously. He'd only do the testing when he was in a good mood and mildly bored, though.

The what-if, will-they-work-it-out testing, both to work out the conversational partner's intelligence, and to test the route of saying an extra detail, like a game master would playfully test a slight twist on a strategy on another master.

Shikaku was uninterested by Yasha' next shadow-related question, and answered it, while his responding question was: "Why do you want to be a shinobi?"

Yasha's glint returned, and that ever-disturbing way of smiling, before he spoke softly. "The shinobi world's a game, and I'm just a piece nudging a few others."

_'Kami, this kid is messed up,'_ Shikaku cringed inwardly, suppressing a shiver at the youth's nonchalant admittance of alienating his entire reality. _'He freely admitted his way of thinking.'_

Shikaku and Inoichi's best efforts hadn't gotten the jounin with that coping mechanism out of his mental trap; the ultimate way out was to show the real world wasn't a game or a figment of someone's imagination, and that was impossible. There was fewer than a hundred religions in the entire world, what with the shinobi system full of 'patriotic murderers', but no way to prove which was the right one.

Particularly in a world where you could summon the Death God with a few hand movements (and, granted, sacrifice of your life and all your chakra). It just enforced the idea some unreachable God was gazing down with a disinterested look, very occasionally 'nudging the pieces', as Yasha had put it.

Shikaku idly noted he could end the shōgi game within seven moves – even if he tried to give the game to Yasha and he went for it unhesitantly, the boy still needed at least ten.

It was good he was close to Naruto, and the blond held sway over him. Pure-minded people were easy to manipulate, but that made them almost _sacred_ to someone with Yasha's mindset. To manipulate them was no test of the system, and so no fun to do either. To betray them was also like giving up one of the best pieces on the board. While he and Naruto were close, Yasha would definitely act towards the blond's interests, much like the conversation of 'what if I kill some villagers' on the monument had tested.

Naruto apparently wouldn't even consider the idea, but if he did opt to leave Konoha with Yasha, the situation would rapidly become a state of emergency. A loss of a Jinchūriki, even one who hadn't mastered their Bijū, was a huge loss of power for a shinobi village; much less the fact the Kyuubi was probably the most powerful Bijū around.

Although Yasha learning genjutsu had caused a momentary panic, Shikaku was thinking hard. How would being able to have unbreakable genjutsu, and being capable of manipulating _anyone_, affect someone with Yasha's mindset? The way he treated the world was like he was nudging pieces in a game when he talked to people; imagine him given the ability to control anyone outright?

Shikaku almost shuddered as he remembered genjutsu's basic purpose: it was mostly used to kill your opponent's morale and will to fight, and if not that, serve as a distraction.

Hell, imagine just the D-Rank basic of the basic _Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu_ [Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique] genjutsu – imagine _that_ being unbreakable. It was only a D-Rank, so Yasha could learn it fairly quickly, but having the object of your nightmares permanently fixated around you would traumatise nearly any shinobi he used it on. Your lover or best friend dying nearby _constantly_, no matter where you went and what you did to break the genjutsu_. _And a couple of ranks above that, the genjutsu became even more hellish – anything to throw off the opponent – including completely blanking out the sense of sight, trapping them immovably in place, surrounding them with people they killed calling insults at them, trapping them in their worst memory…

"What are the scrolls about?" he asked, after politely answering another of Yasha's Nara-related questions. He was beginning to approach the conversational area where Yasha would have enough knowledge to perform the shadow-binding technique without a teacher, but he had emphasised often enough about how dangerous that was, and Yasha seemed to acknowledge it himself.

Surprisingly, Yasha shot an incredibly hard, searching glare at him, the boy's entire body tensing visibly – solid pressure engulfed the area, enough to make Shikaku flinch; but only for the briefest instant, before realisation drifted over the boy's face and the weight vanished.

_'He reacted to me mentioning scrolls? He can't be protective of his genjutsu __**that**__ much; he has no reason to think I'll take them. Must be other scrolls… he has some secrets in other scrolls he's hiding. Further instructions?'_ The Nara Clan Head deduced, energised by the unexpected revelation – although his face betrayed none of it. If Yasha _did_ have scrolls with instructions, the places he could have hid them would be highly limited, what with being monitored since he entered the village; and more importantly, no attempt to bypass the bloodline's automatic defences nor his clever filtering was needed at all. This was a chance they really needed.

Yasha tapped the scrolls he had placed at his side, absent-mindedly checking they were still there. "These? They're genjutsu basics."

"Only the basics?" Shikaku pressed, noting the 'these?', the confirmation which was really only necessary if there _were_ other scrolls. He felt a strong urge to report to the Hokage immediately with this news, but suppressed it. ANBU was more than capable of searching every area Yasha had been to before the boy had time to get there, and Yasha hadn't thought he'd given anything away, so wouldn't rush to be there. There was still information to be gathered; confirming Yasha's history, the extents of his bloodline, and hopefully his sponsor.

Yasha shrugged. "Hai. I've only been using ninjutsu for a couple of weeks."

Surprise shot over Shikaku's face before he could rein it back in. Yasha had mentioned he could only do the basics in ninjutsu, but this revelation was stunning. Yasha was nothing short of a _prodigy_ for being able to know two E-Ranks, plus chakra access and control sufficient to use them, in just two weeks. And that wasn't counting the time he'd been outside of Konoha; so perhaps as little as _one_ week. It made the adult's mind reel.

Okay, granted, most children were taught those far earlier, and it wasn't a surprise for clan children to have it mastered before they even got near entering the Academy. But Yasha had no parents, so Shikaku's next question was his teacher.

"It was mostly from written instructions, but there was someone who uh… is a bit unrealistic to talk about, suffice it to say he is my sponsor…"

_'Bingo. The sponsor has entered the conversation … he's a shinobi, then, or one who had access to the Academy basics. Not too hard to gain, really; they are only E-Ranks. Spying on nothing higher than Academy students would suffice.'_ Shikaku was more hesitant about asking about the sponsor, though, with that mental seal.

_' "__**Unrealistic**__", though. What a bizarre term to use. Unlikely circumstances? No, someone as straightforward as Yasha would just call it unlikely; after all, it didn't betray any information to the sponsor's identity._

_'Unrealistic, then, meant trespassing the borders of realism, something that perplexes me no end. Yasha doesn't seem like one to exaggerate, so he __**legitimately**__ thinks his sponsor's presence is so improbable it was genuinely unrealistic to consider.'_

Yet it obviously had happened, and Yasha's indifferent manner of saying it wasn't realistic intrigued Shikaku, so he asked plainly: "How was it unrealistic to talk about?"

Yasha's gaze ticked up, and that dark intelligence revealed itself again as he grinned. "He reverses a spinning wheel that turns one way, and does it thrice over."

_'Well, __**that**__ was enigmatic. That was __**textbook**__ enigmatic.'_ Shikaku frowned deeply, slightly irritated by the ambiguity, but knowing it was the best he could get without Yasha risking the mental seal.

As if obliging his thoughts, Yasha gripped his head with one hand and a wince. "Ow. Guess that came too close to describing him."

_'It's too much of a riddle to decipher what he just said without weeks of thought. I've reached the ambiguous stage of the metaphors, he's done testing the system with slightly too much information… at least on this topic. I'll have to switch topics before he's willing to be less indistinct and more helpful, but it might take another whole meeting.'_

"Are you okay, Yasha-kun?" Shikaku asked, only mildly concerned. It was Yasha's choice to talk about his sponsor after all, and he was intelligent enough to know what that meant. The movement, now that he considered it, looked slightly like it was faked. If he wasn't checking for it, he wouldn't have noticed.

But only faintly so.

"Hai," Yasha answered shortly, looking decidedly morbid; almost sulky at the seal catching him out.

Maybe it _wasn't_ faked. Emotional reactions would be an overextension of the act.

But the boy carried on with his sudden bad mood, scowling down at the board. "I think this game goes to you, Shikaku-san."

The game still looked even to Shikaku; he had deliberately made it to be so, although he could have won it within ten minutes. It was obvious Yasha was making that up to get out of the conversation.

"You don't seem like the type who would forfeit," Shikaku lured, attempting to rile him back up into a longer conversation.

Yasha dark-smiled at him, obviously not taking the bait. "Appearances can be deceiving."

"Quite." Shikaku nodded. Pressing it would be uncourteous and make Yasha uncomfortable, and ambiguity would run rampant in any answers he could give – it would be pointless. "A rematch then?"

Yasha shook his head, standing up. "Gomen, Shikaku. I can only take so much shōgi in a day, before it becomes troublesome."

"Fine." Shikaku smiled good-naturedly, leaning back onto his feet slowly. Shikamaru had undoubtedly used that phrase during Yasha's class. The shōgi limit was probably true, but Shikaku knew it wasn't the reason. The seal had put the Death Release user in a bad mood and he wanted to vent his frustrations. It was fairly certain the seal's activation earlier wasn't faked.

Yasha glanced over at the village reject. "Naruto, I'm going to go for a run. You wanna come?"

The blond nodded enthusiastically. Yasha was quite fast, whereas Naruto lasted longer – if Yasha got serious, the race would be a challenge. Naruto was curious as to who would win.

"Afterwards, Shikaku-san…?" Yasha glanced over at him questioningly.

Shikaku waved a hand dismissively. "You can come back here, if you want. I found the game quite enjoyable."

"Maybe you should get your son to play?" Yasha teased him.

Shikaku smiled. "He does every once in a while, but as you said, it's _troublesome_ to play too often. New opponents are more challenging."

Yasha's teasing smile widened at the acknowledgement, and the two boys nodded shortly in silent agreement before taking off at a pace he could only _dream_ Shikamaru would consider taking. Nothing short of a bribe of less chores would motivate _that_ boy to any sort of speed. The competitive shouting and footsteps vanished into the distance.

Shikaku nodded towards where one of the ANBU was, putting his hands together. "I'll report to the Hokage. Lion, with me."

The ANBU didn't respond, but he didn't need to, as a whirl of leaves marked where Shikaku once stood.

* * *

The Hokage looked up, and felt a stab of relief as Shikaku appeared with an impish smile. He had evidently found something on Yasha, something good.

"Progress?" he requested simply.

Shikaku's smile grew. "He has scrolls, with secrets he doesn't want found. He's either got them on his person, or hid them somewhere. The latter's more likely. He thinks we can read them, and got worried when I asked about 'what was in the scrolls'."

Sarutobi felt the tension in his shoulders drain a little. "Perfect," he muttered. "Goat! Search Naruto's residence for any scrolls. Bring any you find."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," was the entire response from a seemingly empty part of the room.

Ten minutes later, the ANBU appeared in the middle of the room. His hands were empty. "Hokage-sama, no results."

The Hokage frowned. Not as easy as he had hoped. "So he's carrying it, then?"

"We can't retrieve it without him noticing," Shikaku had taken a seat in that time, having explained the other detail about the 'unrealism' of the sponsor. "Genjutsu won't work. Unless we use it on Naruto."

The Hokage fixed him with a glare for a moment, but he realised his protectiveness was misplaced. It did seem all sorts of wrong to manipulate the blond into asking… but for the village…

No, even then. "No, there's no covert way to get Naruto to ask him for scrolls he'll want to hide from him."

Shikaku nodded and the two mused briefly.

"That cursed bloodline…" the Hokage murmured darkly. It was more of a curse for them, than for Yasha himself. Defence against genjutsu, mind techniques, even doujutsu analysis – there was little chance of covertly getting information they wouldn't know.

"Arrange for a visit tonight, then? Use sleeping gas, and search him then."

The Hokage only had to consider for a moment; Shikaku would have analysed the approach far better. "Yep, sounds good. Lion, return to the team; new orders to watch for scrolls. If they're seen on his person, inform me, but make no move. When he falls asleep tonight, use sleeping gas – no techniques, as they'll be dispelled – and search his person. If he makes a move to burn any scrolls before then, intervene and retrieve them."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." The other ANBU vanished from where he'd been kneeling since Shikaku arrived. His second vocal contribution since he got here – the first confirming he hadn't seen any scrolls yet. The ANBU were a tight-lipped lot almost beyond the call of professional duty.

Due to the bloodline's infection to whoever was close, the ANBU had to steer very clear of Yasha, and there was no Hyuuga on the team, which made tracking Yasha's movements difficult; especially since genjutsu cloaking wouldn't work on him. The team had compromised for various hiding points in the house (spots allowing plenty of time to vacate), and areas in the apartments connected, using area-based illusions to hide themselves from the less genjutsu-proof occupants, if there were any.

Normally they'd introduce their purpose and the villagers would allow them in, but this was a covert op; if the neighbours smelt fishy, it was likely the highly-intelligent Yasha would pick up on it. The team had not requested a Hyuuga, though, as beside being unable to have a direct line-of-sight, it was well within their capabilities to track the movements using sound and smell. Granted, using those senses didn't let you know exactly what someone was picking up and placing down, but their position within the house was fine. Given that neither of them could clone themselves, tracking only two people was laughably easy for them.

Shikaku had reported to the Third that Yasha was a ninjutsu prodigy and held an intellect to match; along with his unfortunate world-is-a-game mindset. The Third accepted that piece of information with nothing more than a small smile and a frown, respectively. He had asked to make sure, but Shikaku had said he was mentally stable, just with suicidal tendencies and less emphasis on morality and social obligations.

The idea of Yasha considering doing immoral things _for the_ _fun of it _had disturbed the Hokage on multiple levels. It was almost worse than Orochimaru, at least he had scientific purpose behind his lack of morals. He was much happier when Shikaku went on to say Yasha would be more willing to stick around Naruto and be loyal to him, even if Yasha held disdain for shinobi in general.

Yasha would also reportedly be unwilling to forsake whatever role in the game he thought he had – which at the current moment was a Konoha ninja. The mental state was definitely stable, albeit nowhere near ideal. It _did_ mean there was little needed by way of real coping mechanisms that the older ninja had to be taught against the trauma of a long shinobi career – so that was a plus.

But Shikaku had voiced his opinion – although he wouldn't be against teaching Yasha the shadow techniques, since he was naturally talented in intelligence, intuition _and_ spiritual chakra levels – he needed absolute certainty of his loyalty before he would. His mental state wasn't ideal, even if it did appear to benefit Konoha, there were obviously still secrets being kept.

The Hokage agreed fully, so that brought them to a conversational standstill; so the Hokage had summoned Inoichi Yamanaka for his advice, and sent an administrator to find whatever notes they had on the couple of shinobi that had gained that mindset.

"So he's stable," he reiterated.

"Yes. Just not mentally… ideal," Shikaku agreed, looking equally thoughtful. He looked bored as well, but Nara members always had the impressive ability to look 'thoughtfully bored'. It confused the council members no end when they pulled it during a meeting. It was one of the few enjoyments the Hokage had in those monotonous sessions.

"That explains a lot of things. His planning is a mixture of very careful and complete recklessness. I would imagine that's dependent on whether he's trying to… _have fun_ or not," the Hokage thought out loud with a grimace. Honestly, some part of him found the fun part rather normal for a child. He hoped Inoichi could do something; he hadn't been able for the jounin, short of direct personality changing. For a pre-genin, it may be possible.

Inoichi strode in with the administrator, both bowing respectfully to the village leader, before the Yamanaka Head tapped the two reports the admin was holding. "I imagine this is why you called me here."

"Inoichi-san, welcome. And yes, we have a problem." Hiruzen took the reports from the admin who bowed once more and went out.

The blond adult gazed at the reports with suspicion; he had quit his role as interrogation head a while ago and did not relish the idea of jumping inside another person's head at all. "Nothing that requires interrogation?" he asked dubiously, looking at his old teammate who looked like he was thinking hard, but offered no clues.

"No… not at this point at least."

Inoichi winced at the less-than-ideal response, taking the two folders and leafing through them, flinching almost immediately at the name held within. "Oh… _that_ jounin."

"Are you aware of Yasha?"

"I have _heard_ about him, yes." Inoichi smirked as he recalled the perturbed but awed tones he had overheard. "Most of my clan was complaining about being woken up at the same time, the last few nights, and they had heard who caused it through the grapevine…"

The Sandaime Hokage coughed. "His bloodline is most likely proof against mind techniques. The question is, he has the mindset. Shikaku-san has found it during his investigation."

"Over shōgi, no doubt?" the blond couldn't help ribbing his old teammate to ease the tension they all felt.

Shikaku grumbled good-naturedly. "He was the intelligent type."

Inoichi smirked, but read quickly, a few minutes later sighing to himself as he slapped the two folders down, collapsing onto a chair himself. He scratched his jawbone aimlessly, pondering, the other two shinobi leaving him to his thoughts.

"Hokage-sama. Your command has been passed along," ANBU Lion said shortly as he re-appeared.

The Hokage nodded idly. No more commands were needed. "Thank you. Dismissed."

With a short nod the ANBU vanished, back to watching Yasha. Inoichi's thoughtful gaze idly travelled to where he had been, but he soon arrived at a conclusion. "I'm not sure we'll get any further with a child than an adult. The problem isn't the mindset itself; it's how reckless and desensitive it makes him. If those two factors are kept in check, the mindset is actually quite a good assistance for a shinobi's way of life. And obviously, it's not 'false', as there's no way to prove a philosophical view."

The Hokage felt more tension lessen. That was better news than he was expecting. "What do you recommend, then?" he echoed the question he had asked Shikaku earlier.

Inoichi frowned. "This will sound unusual, but… keep him with Naruto. People with easily-read personalities are kept as prized pieces in the life game he's playing; Naruto will be able to help him a lot as an anchor to reality. It will also give him a reason to check himself, but also the same reason to exaggerate the symptoms. He needs as many people as he can to be close to him. He just sees himself as a piece on the board right now; making sure he doesn't sacrifice himself is only done by making him move the other pieces, and thus becomes the person playing it."

The Third Hokage nodded slowly, but then his mind caught up. "Hold on, you're recommending to keep him around others that he can manipulate?"

Inoichi gave Shikaku a questioning look. "We haven't seen the changes it does to relationships. They weren't investigated, and aren't in the reports. You said Yasha's manipulative?"

Shikaku nodded. "Definitely. He takes some enjoyment in being so."

"And parading his manipulating ability in front of Naruto," the Third Hokage added.

Inoichi's lips pursed. "That's… great, for his condition to be treatable, anyway. The more he manipulates others, and the easier they are to do so, the more he will feel like the player, and thus the less those two factors will be a problem; by personifying himself as the player, he becomes more humane."

The advice made sense, put that way, but it was still a deeply concerning. The Sandaime had to echo his question. "So your recommendation is to let him manipulate others?"

"Yes, it would be the best method. Obviously, nothing against the village – but with Naruto here, and attached to the village, I doubt he would do anything against Konoha, not without a damn good reason."

The Third's eyes softened at that. The blond boy, not even a genin yet, was still protecting the village, from now two potential threats.

Shikaku had to mention the risk. "That said… if Konoha does… _bore_ him, he may well up and vanish."

"It's not the vanishing I'm most concerned with." The Hokage admitted with a sigh. "His intelligence is very high and he has apparently 90% spiritual chakra to physical. He'll be gifted at genjutsu just from those, but the bloodline he has allows him to access telepathy, without whoever he's connected to being capable of breaking it, or even noticing it."

Inoichi's face paled slightly as he connected the dots. "That is… highly worrying. With genjutsu…"

"It might not be undetectable, but it could very well be unbreakable. A form of genjutsu combat even masters can't achieve," Shikaku said solemnly.

Masters of genjutsu were those with realistic, layered genjutsu. They never had _unbreakable_ genjutsu.

Inoichi glanced at the Hokage. "This could be the best thing Konoha ever had."

The Hokage nearly spluttered at the awed tone, a complete 180 from what his thoughts were, until he realised Inoichi knew nothing about the secrets Yasha knew, nor the fact he snuck in. After all, both facts were restricted to only six people in the Konoha, four of which were tailing Yasha since he entered, and the other two were in the Hokage's office.

But that made the Hokage consider again that Yasha could only be treated two ways: complete acceptance or complete rejection. He'd already agreed to sign the boy as a citizen; true, no one bar Naruto (and Danzō) would object to having him evicted from the village or even executed, if Hiruzen had a good reason to think he was dangerous. Well, no, dangerous he certainly was; a clear anti-Konoha motive, he lacked.

Shikaku seemed undecided and thus neutral. For every positive thing Yasha held as a Konoha shinobi, it held an equal negative if his hidden objectives were against it.

_'We need more information,'_ he groaned to himself, as he took in Inoichi's jaw-dropped and distant expression. The power Yasha could potentially reach seemed incredible – but should he be allowed to reach it?

* * *

Yasha puffed, feeling the invisible ball of heat inside both cheeks as he got his breath back. He was grateful he didn't wear a forehead protector; it'd increase his sweating a lot. Not to mention, he hadn't yet considered what his shinobi outfit would be. He had spent most of the conversation with Shikaku both speaking and cross-analysing what he said, and the max knowledge that could be obtained, before he said it.

He wanted Shikaku dragged into more shōgi games – not that he would win, but there was a chance of an obligation being formed by the Nara Head. So he had offered information, very hard to decipher information, but details the Nara Head couldn't pass up. He had feigned the seal activating on a low level, and then decided to use it as an excuse to run; all that sitting still and thinking hard agitated him.

And he had seen Shikaku react a couple of times, albeit slightly, and his subconscious needed to mull over that for a while. So he had cut off the game early – although he could tell he wasn't going to win; not against a Nara adult, probably not even if Shikaku hadn't played it before – and gone to spur his subconscious on with some adrenaline.

He'd beat Naruto, surprisingly enough; his speed wasn't much faster, but they hadn't run long enough for Yasha to have stamina difficulty. It did say a lot about how hard the boy had worked to become strong in the other resets, if someone with less than two weeks' experience was faster than someone with eight months' Academy training.

Either that, or the Academy was taking a particularly perverse delight in sabotaging him, right down to his taijutsu. Iruka seemed alright with him, no picking on Naruto that he'd noticed, and he looked uncomfortable with agreeing to Yasha's method of motivation… yeah, Iruka wasn't the problem… but there were two other teachers (he'd gathered that from eavesdropping on the students), and they hadn't had all their class subjects yet. Taijutsu hadn't been taught yet; he'd have to investigate Naruto closely during when it was taught, make sure it wasn't being mistaught.

"Damn!" Naruto panted, having caught up with him after about three seconds. He took shuddering gasps. "You're fast, Yasha-san!"

"Well, obviously." Yasha tried to sound impressive through his own gasps. "My chakra is 90% spiritual. I'm practically a ghost."

Naruto obviously couldn't decipher it was humorous, and gazed at him with open-mouthed shock, although his attempts for oxygen meant that barely affected his appearance. The two spent a few minutes gathering their breath (the Kyuubi apparently not affecting oxygen intake – _'well, carbon dioxide levels aren't healing,'_ Yasha reasoned, _'although Naruto's lungs are probably the cleanest around.'_), before Naruto proclaimed how _awesome_ that was.

Yasha felt an eye twitch at his housemate's gullibility, but decided not to correct him. He'd work out the truth himself, and it wasn't actually a lie. There was probably a difference between being a spirit and being 100% spiritual chakra, but Yasha wasn't knowledgeable enough to know what it was. But it did raise questions about how the Kyuubi had managed to split into spiritual and physical parts, while retaining a physical form in the one that wasn't immediately sealed.

Come to think of it, Naruto had Yang, the physical side; was the Kyuubi's Yang part the one that was sealed last? He had to re-read the instruction scroll again.

Speaking of the scrolls, he had realised: they were the one thing he couldn't hide, that broadcasted his purpose.

Or rather – only one was, the instruction scroll. The summoning scroll would be bizarre oddity, but he didn't actually draw it himself, and it wasn't inherently evil in intent nor suggesting he knew the future. He had gotten the final part of the key, the blood from Naruto, on the night he infiltrated, so that wouldn't raise any questions either.

He knew where he had hidden them, but until the tail was gone, he couldn't risk even going to them to burn them up. The tail would intervene before he managed to destroy the instruction scroll, covert nature be damned.

They had already intervened, and if Naruto actually hadn't been in a blind panic, he would have realised soldier pills don't normally come flying from the trees. Yasha disinterestedly wondered if Naruto would ever consider that. He was the happy-go-lucky type, accepting everything good as if it should always have happened, but surely… no, he wasn't the type to think on the past, so it'd have to be asked, in a way that made him properly consider that night.

"Being a ghost is awesome!" Naruto offered his opinion again.

Yasha grinned with no attempt at modesty. "Naruto, I'm the only damn Death Release user you'll ever meet! I don't need to be a ghost to be awesome!"

In a moment of genius, Yasha had left the scrolls in the one place no one would think – the orphanage. He had pried up a loose floorboard in Naruto's old room – wasn't hard, the whole room was falling apart – and stashed the scrolls that weren't messages in there: the summoning scroll and the instruction scroll.

He may have been tailed, but they would have been at their most distracted then; what with the trouble at the gates and ANBU only _just_ starting their evening watch, plus an alert in the orphanage would make them lose focus.

As a plus, he had been seen going to the Academy to drop off his scroll with the message for Iruka; it would make them think he was still carrying all of them, not just Iruka's and Shisui's messages.

He would have patted himself on the back for the stroke of genius, but he still wasn't sure if the scrolls were still undiscovered – and he had come up with the idea on a whim.

Shikaku hadn't mentioned anything that indicated he'd seen it; Shisui would never betray his message, with its dark clan secrets (namely, Mangekyō), not even to the Hokage; and Iruka's accept-this-child-into-your-class scroll held nothing compromising, written knowing it was the one most likely to reach the Hokage.

Not a single conversation he'd had since entering the village indicated anyone else had seen the two hidden scrolls. He wasn't sure how it'd make them react, but knowing he was a time-traveller… there was no way he could hide that. Or insanity; but insanity someone threw lots of money at, somewhat unlikely.

"Okay, Yasha-kun, I get it, you're awesome." Naruto sounded rather subdued.

Disappointment in his voice, the excitement mostly drained. Yasha couldn't miss it, so he brought himself back to the present and racked his brains quickly for a list of reasons for the tone, before he paused and recalled Naruto thought simply – and trimmed his ideas down to the basics. He quickly concluded it was his inability to be at Yasha's level that was disappointing him. Oddly, it seemed to work well with Sasuke originally, having a rivalry spurred both on, one to prove themselves, and the other to make sure he could put the first in his place. Maybe it was harder because they were friends overtly.

Yasha flicked the blond on the forehead, feeling much more awkward than he looked. He found Naruto's pouts adorable. "Don't be silly. I live with another genius, the future Hokage-sama." He kneeled on one knee half-mockingly, but smirking with satisfaction as he realised this act was more truthful than the tail would ever consider. It was like an inside joke; only _he_ knew that Naruto would be Kage-level eventually.

"No, you're closer to being Hokage than me…" Naruto's voice trailed off, although he did seem mildly happier at the acknowledgement. He still wasn't used to getting them, not even from kids his age.

Yasha sighed, standing back up. He brushed his leg off and glared sternly at him as they walked on towards the Nara house a few streets away. "Naruto-kun, that may be so, but you have more chakra than a jounin right now. I still have genin levels."

Naruto knew Yasha didn't exaggerate, and nearly walked into a pole while he gaped at that. Yasha helpfully put his forearm in the way so he didn't get the injury. "But your bloodline's much better! I don't even have one…"

Yasha rolled his eyes. "Naruto, a bloodline like this will eventually kill me. Having too much chakra, like you do, will not. Plus, the Hokages can't be happy about manipulating people."

If the Third had been around to hear _that_, he would have shook his head at the lack of knowledge. Getting through council meetings meant pacifying everyone there; manipulating would be a crude term to use, but nonetheless accurate. Danzō by himself did enough manipulation for countermeasures to be needed.

They made their way back into the Nara garden they had started running from. Shikaku wasn't there, but the shōgi game had been cleared up, bar a note left under a Gold General. The choice of the most superior piece was a not-so-subtle message to Yasha, who smirked at it before he read the note.

Shikaku would be absent for about half an hour, grabbing lunch, "please stay if you want another round of shōgi". An obvious trick to put him into another 20 Questions; Yasha wasn't sure if he wanted to endure that so soon.

Naruto spoke quietly. "I heard you say you'd killed two people? Two… child abusers?"

"Yep," Yasha replied blankly, head not lifting from the note even though he'd finished reading. He gazed at Naruto out of the corner of his eye. "Caught them in the act, really. One wasn't doing anything, but he was letting it happen. So I killed him as well."

"Wow," Naruto breathed, staring at him with a mixture of awe and horror on his face. "Then what happened?"

Yasha rolled his eyes, not going to divulge anything about that. "Then? Then the boundaries of space and time were split and a messenger from heaven graced me with his presence. No, wait, that was before."

"You don't have to be sarcastic," Naruto whined at him.

"My personality _is_ sarcasm," Yasha responded dryly, picking up the three genjutsu scrolls. They hadn't budged from their position, something he was happy about; Shikaku either wasn't that interested, or he was good enough at hiding his tracks to _deserve_ a peek to confirm it.

"I thought it was manipulation."

"Good call. But sarcasm is the brain's natural defence to stupidity. You'll learn to recognise it if you keep talking to me."

As Naruto deciphered the concealed insult, an ANBU currently watching scribbled down another line for the board. _"Sarcasm is…"_

Beside the three scrolls Lion had already identified, there was no extra scrolls the squad had seen. There were also no bulges on Yasha's clothes, so unless he had sealed it on himself with a storage seal… which was very difficult to do around the complex biology of the body, so unlikely… the scrolls were hidden somewhere beside the house. He noted to revisit the Academy, the second place Yasha had most visited, after they had searched him tonight.

His clothes had been punctured full of holes yesterday, and there was no scroll that fell out; so he wasn't carrying it then either.

Naruto's angry cry signalled he had finally extracted the insult. The boy was cleverer than he looked. Yasha grinned at him as his reward. "Hit me with an insult back, then!"

"Uh… you're creepy!"

Yasha blinked at him. "Thank you."

Naruto paused, realising that Yasha liked the idea of appearing dangerous. "You're smelly!"

Yasha frowned. "Am not! And you can do better than that."

"Uh… you're double smelly!"

Yasha facepalmed. Naruto was _definitely_ more imaginative than that. "Fine, poo-poo-head. You've asked for it. Your mother was a toaster and your father smelled of old books."

Naruto stumbled and soon faceplanted over a stone in the road. "What?!" he gawked up at Yasha, his face now rather dusty.

"You're cleaning your clothes, ye child of a toaster."

Naruto dived back onto his feet and brushed himself off quickly. "Well uh… your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of… elderberries!"

Yasha was stunned for a bit. "I have taught you well, Grasshopper."

Naruto was on a roll with his new-found ability. "Shuddup, you're a beetle! A big black beetle."

He didn't get the reference about 'grasshopper'. Well, to be fair, Yasha had only seen two films at the orphanage, and that was one of them. "So polite! And I _am_ so much taller than you. Thanks for admitting it."

Naruto spluttered before attempting to measure his height against Yasha, and the two stumbled over each other's feet for a while before the brunette pushed the blond away. "You're smaller than me, dattebayo!"

_'The scientific accuracy of measurement combined with an ego,'_ Yasha thought dryly. _'Then again, I'm only taller by half an inch.'_

Still, that was half an inch he wouldn't let down. "Fine then. I'll get even taller and scarier."

He slapped his hands together in a seal, yelling out the technique as he drained most of his chakra.

With a large puff of chakra smoke and a pulse of pressure that flattened every blade of grass for an eighth of a mile, the Kyuubi appeared.

* * *

**AN:** Damnit, Yasha. Don't make the Kyuubi appear inside Konoha. Geez, have some situational awareness. You scold Naruto about it often enough.


	17. Anger and hatred followed by regret

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 17: **_**_Anger and hatred followed by regret_**

* * *

**AN:** Well, so I'm back. _From outer space. I just walk- _  
_*cough*_ I mean, yeah. A week passed. I didn't even notice, which tells you about my schedule. I was like 'hmm, best wait until Thursday or something, I'm working on code, not fanfics atm' and then bam, another Sunday hit me in the face and I was all like 'whaa?'.

As promised, the third dimension of mathematics, a theory I came up with at about the age of 13, roughly, so about Yasha's age. Also, everyone's favourite comic-relief jounin duo.  
Long-ass chapter name, but I think it sums it up nicely. Also, it has a double meaning. Nearly all my chapter titles do. I said that, but I expect short-term memory loss from you guys.

Also, Esparia wins the award for making me lol at a review.

So we rejoin the story with Yasha now making the Kyuubi turn up in Konoha's Nara Compound with a mysterious technique. Tensions will be sky-high for a while…

* * *

The Hokage uninterestedly re-read the paperwork in front of him with pursed lips as he passed the time waiting for the two to provide more information. The two clan heads were studying full reports, every word Yasha had said, scouring for extra information. It was all they could do right now.

Suddenly a minor pulse of pressure in the distance made both of the jounin and the Hokage look up. It was on the outskirts of the village – an attack or had a jounin gone overboard again?

"HOKAGE-SAMA!" Ebisu shouted as he charged into the room, nearly falling over the still-knelt ANBU, who skilfully side-stepped despite his kneeling state. "The Kyuubi has appeared!"

The pipe fell out of the Hokage's mouth and he was out of the Tower in a body flicker before it hit his desk.

He paused on the roof, adrenaline coursing through his system. Ebisu hadn't been lying, not about something like that – the horror on his face was all too plain. The pulse… where had he felt it from again?

The Kyuubi meant Naruto. He was in the Nara compound. With _Yasha_. _'Minato's…'_

A few tiles slid towards the ground as the chakra displaced them, but the roof was now empty.

* * *

The ANBU tail nearly jumped out of their skin from the sheer size and KI released with it, despite hearing the technique's name. Naruto was no different, sprawling onto his backside with his wide eyes taking in every square inch of the twenty-foot-tall monster, while nearby Nara spilled their tea and dropped their shōgi pieces with varying yelps.

Only the ANBU's hearing of the technique name saved Yasha from being pelted with all manner of S-class ninjutsu. That, and the fox was at least two hundred foot large normally.

_'I'm not paid enough for this shit…'_ a couple of highly professional ninja thought simultaneously.

* * *

"Yasha-san. What in the blazes of _hell_ made you think transforming into the Kyuubi in the middle of a village _still recovering from its attack_ was a good idea?!"

Fortunately, the deception was obvious before he'd even got to where Yasha was. An ANBU member that was watching Yasha had met up with him midway and told him it was just a Henge and Naruto was fine. The Third had to pause in his mad rush just to process that. Shikaku and Inoichi were hot on his heels, but had stopped when he did, fortunately.

"It was a damn good thing you weren't around another clan!" the Hokage yelled, watching as the boy sunk into the chair under his rebuke. "There was _eleven_ Nara using Shadow Possession, trying to stop the Kyuubi from attacking!"

It didn't help that his Henge's persistence was unusually high – it was very hard to detect it was a Henge at all. The fact he was bleeding jounin-levels of KI didn't help.

Luckily, his impression of the Kyuubi was wrong: it was a red fox with nine tails, but the villagers' experiences had been burned into their memory. So when the Nara saw a Henge made up out of guessing from a description, the fact it was a Henge was obvious to the most intelligent clan in Konoha.

That was probably why they hadn't used Kage Nui no Jutsu [Shadow Stitching Technique] and cut the demon fox into pieces. To his credit, Yasha had only retained the Henge for about five seconds, but the Nara around him had responded in less than three.

Ebisu had been nearby, on the roofs searching for his charge Konohamaru, so had seen it almost immediately. The Special Jounin had panicked on sight, which was unsurprising. For all his bluster, Ebisu was only Special Jounin due to his expert mastery of the basics; he had never gone on to learn anything worth considering him elite.

Yasha looked sullen, and Naruto, sat beside him, was cowed. He'd never seen the Hokage so angry; he'd been upset at pranks Naruto had done, but it'd never gone beyond sighing, and telling off in a gruff though strict tone.

Shikaku and Inoichi were within earshot, hidden behind places the Hokage's guard normally was; both were fixated on the two boys. Shikaku knew the Hokage was attempting to get Yasha angry enough to make mistakes, but it wasn't likely to work. Yasha looked like he was just going to turn off and tune the Hokage out, paying the minimum amount of attention and obviously-forced respect to avoid real punishment. The tune-out looked experienced, too. And Yasha had no qualms with upsetting the villagers.

The Third sighed, pretending to give up on him. "And I admitted you expecting you were intelligent."

Yasha glared darkly at him. It came as no surprise to anyone that he released mild killing intent as he did so, despite his vaguely passive tone. "Don't be troublesome. Your villagers ought to know the Kyuubi is dead."

"That they do," the Sandaime agreed, silently surprised that he offered that titbit of information. He was fairly certain Yasha's interests with Naruto were at least affected by the fact the Kyuubi was sealed inside him, but apparently that was premature assumption. He would've said 'defeated', and he was a person who picked words carefully.

Then again, it _was_ an S-Rank secret, forbidden to tell to anyone who didn't know. Unfortunately, most of the population _did_ know. The Fourth's death had shocked the population, and they weren't going to forget that a baby now contained his murderer _that_ easily, not to mention their own families and friends.

Not for the first time, Hiruzen wished that the villagers had responded as the Fourth predicted. If Naruto had gone into any sort of mental decline, Hiruzen would have been intervened; but the more he was put down, the more he struggled to get higher, and with the civilian council on his case…

Still, back to the conversation. The Hokage was good at dark glares, too. "And they also know that the Kyuubi killed many friends, lovers, families and siblings before he went."

He let his tone relax to solemn, but Yasha's completely unimpressed look at the mention of all the people who paid their lives made him want to get angry again. _'Did he just __**sniff**__ at that? By Kami, this kid is good at rubbing me the wrong way. Naruto plays pranks, but he's straightforward and emotionally sensitive. This kid…' _

His added rebuke was sharp. "Treat the villagers' emotions with respect."

Yasha's tone was icy cold, and his face was completely stony to match. "With all the _respect_ needed, Hokage-_sama_… it's their emotions which is why a certain child is five years behind where he should be, emotionally, socially and intellectually."

Naruto was confused, searching at Yasha's glowering expression for clues. It was staggering for the blond that his friend answered back the Hokage when Jiji was so _angry_. But who was that 'certain child'?

Glancing back at the Hokage, whose anger hadn't faded, Naruto realised there was a standoff, and he pushed the questions aside. "Jiji," he began hesitantly, "…don't take it out on Yasha too hard. He was only trying to make a joke. He's an outsider an' all."

Both glares shot to him. The Hokage's anger softened noticeably, but Yasha seemed just as angry. In fact, even angrier, much to Naruto's dismay. Naruto was desperately trying to resolve it before Yasha got in trouble, his thoughts were racing. _'He's still angry, something to do with that child he mentioned? Was that one of those abusers he killed one who hurt the child? Why was he glaring at the Hokage?'_

"And Yasha-kun… I'm sure Jiji didn't do anything to hurt any kids."

Yasha turned his glare towards him and something Naruto saw in those dark eyes made him freeze up. "Neglect isn't the same as doing something. But you're right… he has _better_ things to focus on." Yasha stood up abruptly, nearly _snarling_ as he snapped, "I'm done here, Hokage-_sama_. Forgive me for disturbing your precious_ villagers_."

"Yasha-kun…" Naruto didn't know what to say, and glanced helplessly between two people who had been far angrier than he'd ever seen them. Wisps of black smoke were bleeding off his housemate's shoulders, and the room had gotten nearly as dark as nightfall would have made it. He wanted to reach to his classmate, to get him to turn around, but he was very aware that the shadows were no illusion.

Shikaku felt decidedly uncomfortable. The lengthening shadows and darkness that had noticeably filled the room, a tool he could wield easily, would normally make him feel much more at ease. But these were most decidedly unnatural. Instead his instincts were prickling all over, some part of his mind screaming _RUN RUN RUN_ … but he had no choice but stay there, his heart racing and adrenaline pumping despite his constant repeating to himself that nothing was happening to him.

"Yasha." The Hokage's tone was icy, and in that moment everyone in that room felt respect for him. Not even the most elite ANBU would have dared speak against the kid who hadn't even made genin yet just then. "My decisions are not yours to question or judge."

Naruto watched in horror as Yasha gritted his teeth, the whites of his eyes blackening entirely in the incredibly dark room. The sense of foreboding multiplied.

There was splintering sounds from the wooden floor underneath Yasha. Shikaku's eyes widened in shock; he knew those were enforced against elite jounin outbursts. The snapping sound continued, every single sound amplified by the silence. One particularly loud crack spurred someone to action, but not the person he expected.

"Yasha-kun!" Naruto yelped, finally leaping out of his chair, grabbing his housemate in his strongest grip. "Don't do this! Stop arguing! I don't want you and Jiji to be enemies, dattebayo!"

Inoichi distantly noted the black curling wisps of fog _were_ real. They wrapped around Naruto's arms like rising smoke would. The blond was no clone… if Yasha's bloodline killed him, the Kyuubi's chakra would _explode_ outwards, and that energy was physically and mentally corrosive. It'd be safe to say anyone nearby would die. Certainly the entirety of the Hokage tower, maybe much further.

And in some time… who knew how long… the Kyuubi's escaped chakra would reform its shape, right in the middle of Konoha. A third attack, a revenge for its sealing and death, with barely any warning.

The first time the demon had just been attacking without reason and he slaughtered _hundreds_. A _revenge_ attack… Inoichi dreaded what would happen if Kyuubi let off another one of those Bijū Bombs without the Fourth around to teleport it away.

He wished he knew a clone technique, but his own mental defences didn't permit Kage Bunshin memories to return; when one dispersed it just gave him a headache. And he knew when an emotion was pushed to the extreme, it provided a wealth of information. He _knew_ that, but he'd sell his house to be somewhere else right now. Sweat was _pouring_ off him.

He hoped Naruto could calm him down before the shadows did something everyone regretted.

Suddenly a twinge of red chakra flew up from Naruto, who winced, before coughing as another spurt of the red energy flew upwards, making the already overpowering tension double.

_'The Kyuubi's chakra is coming out?! That can only mean Naruto is…'_

* * *

Kakashi sighed, twitching slightly as he laid on his bed, one eye soon staring thoughtfully upwards.

The Fourth's son, now with an outsider… it was almost comforting to have someone he could track around the village and feel suspicious about. It gave him something to think about, beside the teammates he had failed, or his lack of knowledge on how to deal with his Sensei's legacy.

Gai had been pressurising him into ever more contests since he had been taken out of ANBU, and Kakashi was grateful as well that his "Eternal Rival" hadn't abandoned him during his dark days in Danzō's unit. It was as irritating as it was calming to keep the competition calming.

Suddenly his instincts began to prick. It was slight, but Kakashi was out of his house and kneeling on the roof in a ready position in two seconds.

Then **_it_** punched into him.

A wave of sheer pressure that winded him before he even realised it. He had gone limp and was falling off the building before his mind caught up with what was nearly overwhelming him. He could see dust fluttering off the roof from the pressure.

His muscles _wouldn't_ tense, even as the ground grew closer. The pressure was _incredible_. _'Is the Kyuubi… no, it couldn't be…'_

Kakashi took a couple of deep breaths, using every technique he had nearly forgotten about to recover from the psychological weight. His legs shook as they refastened to the very edge of the roof.

Another pulse and his wobbly grip vanished. He fell again, landing on all fours on the street, taking ragged breaths. Around him, he saw villagers dropping like flies. Every person in the street was struggling to get up. _'Even the Kyuubi hadn't done this. What the hell is it?!'_

As a third pulse hit, or more like _crashed _into him, he hardened himself against it, and managed to stay on his desperately quivering hands and knees.

There was some untraceable movements happening all around him. His eye would catch it and just as quickly lose it. Every pulse would make dust fly off the street, and using that effect, he estimated the pulses' origin.

Another pulse hit, then the force decreased… and Kakashi ran for the origin, not taking a moment to catch his breath. Whatever _was_ there had to be bad.

He skidded to a stop just shy of the source, the Hokage Tower. But it looked unharmed, but the pressure was definitely coming from the office.

With a series of leaps he was frankly surprised he could make, he arrived on the roof. His view snapped downwards as his instincts yelled at him to jump off the roof, and realised the entire thing, normally a light orange colour in the morning sun, was instead a very dark red, like the sky was covered in storm clouds. He could see whatever was overlaying the roof making its way inside, moving into the Hokage's office.

In a flash, he used his Sharingan to analyse what he could see of the room. Distortion seals on the now-darkened windows meant he couldn't see the location or identity of them properly, but there were plenty of chakra signatures; one of them had to be the Sandaime's, behind the desk and sitting. The KI definitely wasn't his, though. There was no alarm going off, but seeing that every person on the street in sight was collapsed, no one seemed capable of turning it on anyway. The ANBU guard team weren't moving from their positions or ready stances; the situation, as bizarre as it sounded… was under control. Kakashi lost no time following his instincts and pushing off the window's roof, going to the flat opposite.

Suddenly the pressure eased up completely, causing him to take a shuddering sigh of relief. In that state, having to force his body to breathe, he'd be hard-pressed to take on a single Chuunin.

He made it very apparent to the now-awakening citizens that he was there, standing at the edge of the roof above the Hokage office and looking down with an unperturbed expression, whipping out Icha Icha for good measure. If anyone came to investigate, they needed to know it was under control. If the Hokage was still in there, it was.

Although what Akiko-chan was up to in the bathroom was the least of his concerns… one had to keep up appearances.

Okay… maybe he was _slightly_ concerned about Akiko-chan…

* * *

A deep wracking cough came from Naruto, and the Third looked in shock at the splatter of blood on Yasha's back near where Naruto's mouth was. Yasha wouldn't defuse himself, and while he was defending Naruto, there was no way the boy would accept the blond calming him either. That left just one person in the room; and the Third couldn't deny he felt happy over exactly _who_ Yasha got this worked up for.

"Having said that," the Third continued hastily, "the results are not pleasing, even if I do make the best choices _politics_ allow."

He emphasised 'politics' very deliberately. It was true; much of what he could have done for Naruto, he couldn't. He was heavily limited without publically admitting he was the son of the Yondaime, other countries would attempt to get in; and all they needed was one person in the village who was angry at the Yondaime not saving their relative/friend… and there would be an assassination courtesy of Iwa ANBU and inside help. Worse yet, the public disorder if he was kidnapped. He really couldn't do any more.

The oppressive aura faded a little, and Yasha shot the Hokage a searching look, analysing for his guilt in his face. The Hokage nearly flinched – Yasha's eyes were completely demonic.

The whites of his eyes had discoloured to pure black. The previously black iris and pupil had morphed to a faintly glowing red colour, and the pupil was quite large, filling most of the eye, but glowing an even darker red. The effect was horrifically inhumane, and even Hiruzen had to struggle to keep the fear from affecting his expression. Kami knew his instincts had tripled their shrieking to _RUN_ at seeing those eyes.

Yasha analysed his guilty expression before a deep, shaking sigh went through his body, the dark aura around him fading entirely and the wisps vanishing. Thankfully, the eyes reverted as well, although he closed his eyes for most of it.

The Hokage went on, genuine regret seeping into his tone now he had fought off the instinctual fear. "I had hoped for better, but there's only so much I can do before a new leader is appointed, one who suits the will of the majority."

Yasha put his hands into a Snake seal, and the Hokage watched as the room grew lighter and lighter to his eyes, the sunlight somehow returning to full brightness, despite having never really left nor been visibly blocked.

Yasha's voice was strained from effort. "Hokage-sama, this is not a democracy. But even if I accept your apology, if I see any mistreatment, I can't guarantee the person will keep their life."

"Show restraint, Yasha. Even if your bloodline makes it hard."

"I have four shadows!" Naruto yelped, standing up and collapsing in a fit of wet coughing immediately, more blood hitting the floor.

"Yeah?" Yasha asked with an eerily detached apathy. "I'm not surprised. You should never touch me when I'm angry. In fact, you shouldn't be in the same room."

Naruto had never noticed the auras he gave off – or the KI – mostly because it was never directed at him, and he was always too concerned for Yasha to pay attention to his surroundings. But he couldn't ignore the effects it had physically had on the room and himself.

His coughing worsened, and the blond was shocked as he realised he was bleeding somehow. It was like the times he had been kicked in the mouth, but there was no cuts inside his mouth. It was coming from his throat? Or the stomach.

Shikaku had heard Naruto healed quickly, even if the blond didn't notice that himself. Whatever four shadows meant, Naruto wasn't recovering fast enough; even if so much of the Kyuubi's chakra was being used that it was leaking slightly in its attempts to heal him, even the most powerful Bijū's ability to heal wasn't enough. If Yasha had stayed angry, if the Hokage hadn't apologised…

The extra shadows were retreating, towards Naruto, as if the non-existent light source that cast them was going over his head. It was exactly like the time Yasha had used the Summoning mix. No wonder Yasha had looked slightly uncomfortable then; it was petrifying to have that darkness _near_ you, forget about _on_ you.

Three shadows had led to the meat being stripped straight off the bone in the instant it went near to Yasha. How did Naruto even _survive_ that? Did the darkness pick up on his targets mentally in the same way they picked up on his thoughts for telepathy?

Clearly, though, that Summoning had not been necessary. The seals were a bizarre mix, so it was highly likely the entire sequence was pointless. Yasha had been attempting to dumb down his ability in front of Shikaku (albeit only mildly) by adding delay to his technique. He already had enough of the darkness within his chakra system to fill most of the room until it looked almost like night.

Naruto wheezed for air from where he had fell on the ground, his breathing getting panicked as more blood dribbled from his mouth.

"Calm down, Naruto-kun, I've got it under control," Yasha calmed him firmly, with a forced smile that came off more like a grimace. But the blond's breathing relaxed and he took a shuddering breath as his last extra shadow vanished.

"That hurt, Yasha!" he cried with a surprising ferocity, stepping up and throwing a punch that sent the unprepared boy across the room.

Yasha clicked his jaw and smirked back without any malice, wordlessly kneeling and making a Snake seal again. "It was your dumbass idea to hold a Death Release user when they're angry."

_'Death Release?'_ Inoichi's first thought was it was childish, a lot of techniques were meant to kill the enemy… but the rest of the thoughts were about his sweat-covered clothes and the fear he had felt not a minute ago, and he hastily regretted that first thought. And he knew Yasha didn't know how to control his killing intent properly, and he'd cracked the chakra-enforced floor with just the unfocused amount. And psychic power wasn't even meant to affect the physical surroundings.

Yasha was definitely a powerhouse… but _Kami_, was he scary. Inoichi had never seen even a _jounin_ that had made him fear for his life this much… apart from that mission where Shikaku had got the two facial scars, maybe. Their sensei had died in that mission protecting them.

How the Hokage could just stand there and try to rile him up further… it was unbelievable.

No one bar a very good medic-nin would be able to go near Yasha in that state. If Naruto didn't have the Kyuubi, it was highly likely he'd be severely injured now, if not dead outright from the internal bleeding. How did the insect swarms he controlled attack?

Yasha released the Snake seal and stood up, his skin looking a few tones darker… or was it? Inoichi's eyes weren't sure, having seen the environment light levels change from day to night and back.

"Can't you say sorry, Yasha?" Naruto pleaded the other boy, still attempting to patch things up with the Hokage.

The brunette gave him a disbelieving look. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, that the village is full of idiots, several of which are in this room," Yasha 'apologised', being ambiguous about who he was insulting. "Hokage-sama, may I leave?"

The Hokage considered his shattered physical appearance before nodding shortly. He'd seen all he needed about Yasha and Naruto's bond. The Henge into Kyuubi was just an excuse he needed to rile Yasha; albeit a very good one. He also now knew Yasha's control of the bloodline was related to how emotional he was, and that this kid, should he master his ability, would reach the levels of Kage in a matter of years. The KI he had released and the casual way it had overwhelmed the Kyuubi's healing ability testified that much.

Having said that, his chakra levels were still genin. But that was the problem: the ability was Kage level but his control of it was poor. If Yasha died or lost his head during a fight, his ability would run rampant. It heavily depended on his chakra control and amount of it, both of which were poor as well.

* * *

"Naruto-kun, did you sense anything while I was angry back there?"

"_Sense_ anything?" Naruto repeated in disbelief as they stepped out the Hokage Tower's front doors. "I _saw_ the ground crack under you and I felt really sick, dattebayo!"

"Hai, hai. I mean, did you feel anything? Like… a pressure?"

Naruto's disbelief dropped into thoughtfulness. "Um… kinda, but I didn't really notice it."

Yasha was aware that the ninja gathered around the building was in higher numbers than normal; on the way out, he hadn't seen a single person. They must have been evacuated or something. He was certainly getting plenty of odd looks, but maybe it was their conversation?

"Fine, then…" Yasha recalled the Summoning scroll. There was no reason to assume Naruto would connect the two when he was this inobservant. _'Seriously, "feeling sick" around mountains of KI hardly counted as observant…'_

He didn't speak until most of the nosy ninja were out of sight and they were halfway back to the Nara compound. "I have an ally of sorts, you can summon with a scroll. Basically, you just push chakra into the scroll, and he turns up. It's only a one-off, and only you can summon them, though. He's as powerful as I am – just tell him two things: who to attack and if you want them dead."

"Huh?" Naruto responded intelligently, a bit overwhelmed by that amount of information so suddenly.

Yasha did some repeating before Naruto finally worked out what he was going on about.

"So you can make a demon appear?!" Naruto asked with an awed grin.

"Well, no, _I_ can't, but you can. The scroll's keyed to your name."

"That's so cool! Can I see it?"

Yasha absent-mindedly tapped his pocket, before remembering he'd left it in the orphanage. Technically, there was no real point to hide it as far as information on it – there was no real shocker in what it summoned (Yasha himself after a time delay of a few seconds). But he hadn't needed it, so he left it there.

His efforts to hide the Jinchūriki status secret with a slight word change was meant to make it seem like he wasn't aware of the S-class secret. Anything that suggested physical contact with Naruto outside of his mission objectives would send him to T&amp;I before he could blink. If they suspected his sponsor knew but he didn't, they could hardly question him about it; and his sponsor knowing about it would make sense as to why Yasha was sent to one orphan specifically.

Anyway, Naruto was waiting a response about the scroll… The brunette responded, "I don't have it with me right now, but I'll get it at some point. I want it to use it if anyone tries to hurt you and you can't win."

_'Eventually, I'll have to fetch the scroll. Hopefully, during the period when the tail was dismissed.'_

He tutted to himself as he realised he was trying to get the Hokage to do him a favour with trust, and then had torn up half his office in a hissy fit just a few hours later. Okay, a hissy fit for mistreatment of a friend, but a hissy fit nonetheless.

He wondered if the Hokage's generosity would be withdrawn because of that, and the genjutsu scrolls would be taken away again. Suddenly slightly panicked, he turned to Naruto. "Hey, Naruto, let's head back to Shikaku's house. Last one there has to divide three by zero."

"What? Hey, wait!" Naruto sped after him with a yell.

* * *

Kakashi was only slightly surprised when both Naruto and Yasha emerged from the Hokage Tower; the only ones moving to and from it after that pressure had knocked most of the villagers flat. Literally.

_'The "KI alarm clock" and the Kyuubi's container? Yasha's famous reputation with killer intent was definitely underestimated. What did the Hokage do to wind him up?'_

"Ah, my Eternal Rival! How hip of you to be here!"

He stifled back a groan which would have made the spandex-clad jounin preen.

The silver-haired jounin let a few seconds lapse, before his eyes drifted from his book to the new arrival in a practised manner. "Did you say something?"

"Kahh!" Gai clutched at his chest and reeled back dramatically, but Kakashi's half-lidded eye could easily see he was relieved by the normal response. "So hip! As expected of my rival!"

He stood closer to the roof, peering down at the two with an intensity Kakashi knew indicated the act he normally had was suspended. "Yasha again? I've heard rumours of his use of killer intent."

Kakashi hummed. "Hai. The Hokage must have got him angry. Maybe we can ask around how. It was no secret what was happening in there; there's got to be some form of explanation from the Hokage. You can go and ask…"

"Of course!" Gai posed in a thumbs-up and the silver-haired ninja was nearly assaulted by the sunlight rays from Gai's personal brand of reflective toothpaste. "I shall ask our most Youthful Hokage!"

Kakashi didn't bother to correct him that the Hokage was probably the _least_ youthful Kage around before the eccentric jounin left. He had learnt long ago the term was a generic way of applying an adjective to things, like Anko and her f-bombs. He'd be ranting about someone being youthful on their deathbed.

* * *

They were panting rather hard as they got back. Naruto seemed to enjoy the fact he'd won, but Yasha had predicted it, as the race was long enough for their difference in speed to be lost to difference in stamina.

"You… _puff_… lose… _puff_… Yasha!" Naruto crowed breathlessly. "You have to… _puff_ …divide three by zero!"

Yasha just nodded, catching his breath and flicking the sweat off his hair with his hand as he strode up the steps to Shikaku's house. "Three… _puff… _divided by zero… _puff…_ is three… _puff…_remainder infinity. Or neutral three."

They were met by their class's mini-Shikaku, who voiced his opinion for whoever wanted to hear. "Oh, it's you. Troublesome. Ohaiyo, Yasha-kun, Naruto-kun."

Shikamaru had been wondering what had happened in the Nara compound, but no one was talking. He had felt the pressure from the nearby shopping centre but everyone was keeping mute for the moment. Rushing home had proved a waste of energy, much like the lazy part of him had immediately pointed out. He wondered if it was to do with Yasha being here earlier and now just returning…

"Oh, hello, Shikamaru," Yasha greeted just as lazily. "We were just discussing theoretical maths and the boundaries of the third numerical dimension with Naruto here."

Naruto nodded vigorously, half of the statement's meaning lost on him but having experience on Yasha's acts of confusing everyone. Shikamaru's jaw dropped a bit, something both other boys took pride in.

"Your father invited me for shōgi," Yasha explained as they let themselves back in.

"Ah. I don't suppose you won," Shikamaru asked warily. From what he knew, Yasha was smart; and it was rare his father invited people to play shōgi with him; but surely he wasn't _that_ smart?

"Nah, I've only played a few times, I lost easily," Yasha dismissed, missing the slight relief that crossed his classmate's face as he turned to the blond. "Naruto, you need testing, but I've got to study them as well."

"What are you studying here?" the Nara asked.

Yasha grinned. "The ninja hand signs. Naruto needs brushing up, but I'm not from inside the village, so I don't know any."

Naruto didn't miss that Yasha was covering up his educational lack again. He used that clever way of his, picked words that covered up the true meaning while not lying.

"Oh?" Shikamaru's tone was deceptively light as he zeroed in. "I thought you were from the Land of Fire? They teach the same hand signs everywhere."

"Hai, hai. I _might_ have slept through that class." Yasha grinned, using an excuse he knew Shikamaru had to accept. That kid was smart, but he knew that about him before he ever entered Konoha. His defences were up before the Nara expected them.

Being taught ninja signs wasn't particularly normal outside of Konoha. The only shinobi villages besides it only had self-contained forces of a handful of chuunin/jounin; there was also the Fire Lord's private shinobi forces, including the Twelve Ninja Guardians, but they didn't tend to teach kids nor did they waste time on people who didn't know the basics. Education was kept in sync with Konoha's standards or better for obvious reasons.

So his lack of knowledge had to be kept on the low or he'd _really_ stand out to the Nara. The two made their way back to the garden, where Yasha was relieved to see his undisturbed genjutsu scrolls.

* * *

Shikamaru found it interesting that his father was questioning Yasha so soon. Whether he was going to give him Nara training, his father hadn't announced, so it was safe to assume it was still up in the air. Shikamaru noted he was feeling pangs of jealousy, and quickly suppressed them. If his father wanted him to show more enthusiasm, he would simply _ask_. There was no chance of his father replacing him.

He made his way over to where the other two boys were, lying down in the sun, but listening keenly as he idly watched the sky.

Yasha and Naruto, a new almost-definitely-a-prodigy and the class prankster, had hit it off far better than Shikamaru originally estimated they would. Since the first day Yasha had turned up, they'd been inseparable.

Naruto had been hiding some injuries that day, quite severe ones. Shikamaru had only started noticing this was becoming a regular occurrence recently. He assumed Naruto was attempting to train and/or was caught pranking, but Shikamaru was beginning to suspect there was more to it; training injuries wouldn't be concealed with that much shame. Plus, how could Naruto injure himself without even being capable of using Bunshin? But if he was fighting with someone else, it was being untreated.

And the blond had to have gotten better at pranking, Kami knew he had been doing it for years. He couldn't be so sloppy at getting away by now. If it kept up the Nara was even considering bringing it to his father, or asking a teacher.

Maybe he could ask Yasha. The gossips of the class had divided their attention between Yasha and Sasuke, so the Nara was fairly certain come a month, he'd have more information about Yasha than he really needed; Naruto was only spoken about when his pranks did something particularly hilarious, but not in a good way.

Most of the classes he spent snoozing, but at the start of the year Shikamaru had analysed everyone carefully. He learnt about the girls; how to read when there was good gossip on the table. It was strangely difficult at the start, girls were fickle things…

It wasn't his nature to start a conversation though. The last thing he wanted was to befriend the boy and have his fangirls jump down his throat for "where is Yasha?" every five minutes. Sasuke had the right idea climbing a tree to eat lunch; Shikamaru was considering doing that just so the squealing would be quieter during the lunch breaks. There was quite a few comfortable spots in trees. He listened into the conversation happening nearby with his eyes widening.

The two carried on their façade merrily. "See, Naruto. Here's the number line. Positive and negative, right?"

"Hai, hai." Naruto nodded, trying to rush through the short lecture.

"Now, squaring and square roots. That lets you jump back. That's fine, but when you get to dividing by zero, you have a problem, don't you."

"Yep, definitely. There's uh, infinity."

"Exactly. You can have one apple, give zero to an infinite number of people, and still have one. But zero isn't positive nor negative number. So the third number dimension, which I call a _neutral_, has all the answers like that. Square root of one becomes neutral one, rather than positive one remainder infinity."

"I see." Naruto's tone was thoughtful as he gazed at the dirt Yasha had scribbled in, pretending to comprehend. There was sense to be made here, he was sure of it. "So when you divide by zero, you access the neutral dimension."

"That's right. Also, when you get the square root of a negative number."

Shikaku wandered in with his eyes carefully half-lidded, despite the conversation he was hearing.

"See, a number multiplied by itself is called squared. A square root, is doing the opposite: working out what is multiplied by itself to get the number you have. So square root of a negative number, say negative one?"

"It's not possible," Naruto offered after a while, recalling a bit of math he learnt a long time ago. "Two negatives make a positive, dattebayo."

"Exactly." Yasha suppressed a snort at the two incredulous stares he was getting from the Nara. He had just noticed Shikaku in the doorway. "So we go back to the third number dimension, which will let us access these unknown numbers."

"It would also be useful for working with positive and negative infinity," Naruto finished.

They both laid back down with a satisfied sigh, eyes glancing upwards.

"We're geniuses, dattebayo," Naruto said matter-of-factly. He had only the vaguest idea what any of Yasha was going on about. Luckily, Yasha had told him the ending phrase in a whisper before Shikamaru had settled down.

"Hush, now, Naruto-kun. You're pretending to be dead-last, remember? What if word got out you could thrash Shikaku at shōgi-?" Yasha looked up and fixed the approaching adult Nara with a disarming smile. "Oh, hey, Shikaku-san."

Naruto looked over with his trademark grin, not getting up. "Hey, Scarface-san."

Shikaku raised an eyebrow, deliberately not commenting on their maths nor the nickname, and turned to Yasha. "Theoretical maths already? I wasn't gone _that_ long."

"Pfft," Yasha lazily waved a hand. "The third numerical dimension is easy for even dead-lasts."

"That's right," Naruto agreed enthusiastically, not quite realising he was contradicting his own self-assessment earlier.

Yasha glanced at him, having noticed, and tapped the books. "Let's move on to more troublesome things. So, hand signs, Naruto-kun, how many have you got down?"

"Most of the book, I think. There was only seventy. It's either directions, objects, numbers, or commands."

**Left, chuunin, two, attack now.**

"That's good." Yasha nodded approvingly. He gazed at the three scrolls, wondering whether to read those – the reason he had rushed back to the Nara house at top speed – or the hand sign book. He didn't want to be unable to help Naruto with the signs, but the Jinchūriki learnt through physical practice anyway, not quizzing. "See if you can plug up the gaps. I'm gonna read these."

"Can I read them?"

Yasha shrugged. "They require a very fine amount of chakra control, hard to have if you have a ton of chakra like you do… but you can, if you want."

There was no way Naruto would get it without great difficulty, but refusing the blond access would just be counter-productive and encourage him to steal them. He knew future Naruto was useless at genjutsu, and a gleam entered Yasha's eye as he considered if he could change the future. With enough goading…

"What's that look, Yasha-kun?" Shikaku asked placidly.

"It's the look I get when I advance in my world domination schemes," Yasha replied without missing a beat, the glint unfading, much to Shikaku's alarm. Even for being a Nara he couldn't read whether his statement was true or false; it took a couple seconds of thoughts before he realised Yasha wouldn't blurt out such a scheme.

"Hmm. Well, I wish you luck."

"For that, you shall be my esteemed head of cloud-watching," Yasha said dreamily.

The fact there was two ways to interpret that, one related to a passively-hostile Land of Cloud in the Elemental Nations, was not lost on the Nara – who sauntered off to make tea, seeing Yasha would sense something was amiss if he pulled him off his genjutsu scrolls so quickly.

In fact, he almost cursed, there was no way a Nara could display motivation beyond the norm, without showing an alternative motive. Even for shōgi; Yasha had openly told him that he wasn't going to play again. Interrupting Yasha's reading again would definitely arouse suspicion from him. _'Sorry, Sandaime-sama. I've done as much as I can. For better or worse, he's going to have genjutsu.'_

* * *

Yasha pondered the genjutsu basics; there was much his knowledge of the future and the current classmates helped with, leading to conclusions the scroll didn't explicitly say.

The basics were simple, though. There were two classes of genjutsu: one world-based, and one mind-based. The more advanced genjutsu was mind-based, or more accurately, mapping your own mind's unique design to one that matched the targets' minds. No mean achievement.

The easier ones were world-based, layers of chakra placed over physical objects. Luckily, the natural world had chakra which the mind picked up anyway, mostly through the eyes. The most basic of genjutsu didn't bother to match the target's minds, simply overlaying the natural chakra with their own in a stronger way, and letting them perceive it. It was the basis behind Henge, in a way; using chakra to simulate something as something else.

Once the genjutsu was seen, their brains naturally reacted, absorbing the foreign chakra through the senses the same as natural chakra.

There were several flaws in this. Firstly, the doujutsu had a huge benefit here: they could see the discrepancy in the chakras, sensing the foreign one. Byakugan could also see beyond the illusion to what was really there; Sharingan had no such benefit, but did notice the illusion all the same – and its ability to cast its own genjutsu by throwing foreign chakra at whoever looked at the eye was also hard to match.

Because the brain naturally tried to sense chakra around through its eyes, Sharingan genjutsu worked by changing the chakra it appeared as when observed; just like Henge did.

Second flaw was that the injection of foreign chakra from perception could be noticed if you were looking for it.

Third flaw was, the slightest disruption of chakra flow to the other users would also make those nearby reconsider their surroundings. Nearby people releasing themselves from an illusion would make you realise they were there, even if the illusion was trying to hide them; your brain sensed a change in the chakra around you and tried to figure out what caused it.

Essentially, if one person in a hypnotised group noticed something was off, you could consider the entire group free within ten seconds, even if that one freed person didn't inject chakra into the rest of the group. That relied on the rest of the group being experienced/observant enough, though.

Fourth flaw: a person could release even the strongest illusions by just upping the amount they scrambled their own chakra flow. The person's own chakra never could harm themselves unless they morphed it into an elemental type (i.e. using a Great Fireball technique and inhaling instead of exhaling). People with stronger chakra control could therefore release stronger genjutsu; no matter how strong you made it.

Fifth flaw; the caster had to be within chakra-sensing range of whoever they were casting into a genjutsu. You couldn't hypnotise the Raikage from Konoha, even if you knew exactly where he was and were capable of sending chakra there remotely (impossible even for the Rikudō Sennin). No genjutsu could be applied properly without adjusting in the slightest amounts to the chakra system of the recipient. You could throw a semi-realistic one without chakra sensing, but most likely it'd just be like getting hit with a gust of wind; it'd slide onto and off of the target's perception within half a second.

The class of mind-based genjutsu involved just casting spiritual chakra at the person in question, through the air (or whatever medium was in the way). It sounded simple, but the slightest breath of wind would make the genjutsu less effective; a mild gust of wind with a weak technique would ruin it entirely. So, you cancelled that out with more chakra _density_ and more speed. You couldn't expand the chakra you sent, though; it had to draw itself over the target's brain; you had to pack it together tighter.

Dense chakra was hard to perform, normally left to just genjutsu and medical usages. Hence, the longer distance you cast the genjutsu over, the harder it was.

Yasha knew that this could be difficult. His style of genjutsu was going to be mind-based. He had the benefit that he could access people's minds with a few seals, so the whole travel-through-air was not a problem – nor was the genjutsu being released, for that matter; the darkness, if there was enough on the brain, could just resume the genjutsu state as soon as the Kai was over.

At any rate, he knew from Hinata's experience that he had a way to throw the darkness into the person's head. All it required was injection of chakra; ironically, that was how genjutsu could be released by comrades. Supposedly, the darkness could move to the brain from wherever on the body he touched, but there was no doubt a speed increase if he went for the head.

The question was: he'd used telepathy, and he'd used chakra coming from his hands – but he'd never remotely controlled chakra. He needed a way to throw chakra out there, preferably with no connection to himself, flood the target, throw and place the genjutsu through the new chakra, and be happy.

The darkness will maintain the chakra he left; if he told them to. Or would they know anyway? He had telepathy after all, and it worked by them reading his thoughts, somehow transmitting it, and then reproducing them on the other person. So, if they read his thoughts, would he even need chakra manipulation to command them?

Food for thought… there was plenty he needed to test out.

He moved onto the second scroll, now he'd finished the first. Genjutsu seals: the most basic. Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu… Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing? A sadistic smile crossed his face. Someone up there was just as twisted as he was, making demonic illusions a D-Rank.

He turned to Naruto and made the six seals needed (it could be cut down to two), and was just about to expel the chakra when he paused to think. This showed the opponent their closest friend about to die. Doing that to a Jinchūriki was probably a god-awful idea.

He turned and considered sending it towards Shikamaru instead. No, any Nara was going to be harder to use genjutsu on, and he wanted to be in their good books anyway.

Hmm… he looked back at Naruto and sighed. _'Rock on Kage Bunshin, missing you already.'_ He let his arms fall and released the hand seals his chakra had prepared for.

"A wise choice, I think," Shikaku offered his opinion, having watched Yasha and recognised the hand seals. "I'll be a target if you want."

It'd be an easy way to see if his bloodline actually _did_ make genjutsu permanent, and a D-Rank like that… it'd upset him if he succumbed to it and was shocked.

"Thanks, Shikaku-san!" Yasha spun and made the six seals again.

Shikaku glanced around, but didn't see any effect. "Nothing, Yasha."

"I'll try more chakra," Yasha said, making the seals again.

The air shimmered around Shikaku that time. "Shimmering air, but no leaves or dying person."

Time passed. "I saw a couple of very small leaves."

"More leaves, but they aren't swirling."

"Swirling leaves, but not enough of them. And no follow-up dying guy. I've seen this jutsu before, you know."

"Still only a third of the leaves I'm used to."

After about ten minutes, Yasha had nearly exhausted his chakra supply. One last attempt left Shikaku still unimpressed, using Kai and finding it no harder than any other illusion to throw off. "Half the leaves, no dying guy. But genjutsu isn't particularly easy, don't get discouraged if you can't do it on day one."

"Hai. Thanks, Shikaku-san." Yasha turned tiredly to Naruto, and paused as he saw he was staring at the sky, bored of book reading. "Oi, you scumbag, who told you to take a break? I'll stab you with the ugly end of a spoon and make you lick the stomach acid off."

For a brief moment Shikaku wondered if Anko had been around this kid. The threats were rather gruesomely detailed and delivered in a way that seemed unhesitant to carry it out.

Naruto's jaw dropped comically, and he sat up and analysed Yasha's expression carefully. Eventually he realised Yasha wasn't serious and his face scrunched into a wince. "Ne, Yasha-kun, give me a break. I've been studying all day."

"Being in the Nara compound doesn't let you be lazy, you know."

Naruto sighed. "Five minutes!"

Yasha nodded. "Five minutes or I get the ANBU stalking us to beat you up."

Shikamaru snorted, faking disbelief, although he was well aware they were being watched. "ANBU tailing _you_ two?"

"Yeah. I'm all dangerous and shit." Yasha grinned at him. "I'll kill you before you can say 'why do I have two shadows?'"

"That's not an instant kill, though… right?" Naruto asked him uncertainly, both of them missing Shikaku's wince as he recalled the terror he had felt earlier.

"No, it's a definite kill, but not an instant one. You have up to a few minutes if you have two shadows. Depends, although I'm not sure what on."

"What does four mean?" Naruto recalled what had happened less than an hour ago… for some reason, it felt like weeks ago.

Yasha shrugged. "Four means you're dead in less than ten seconds."

"I had four, dattebayo," Naruto pointed out.

"You were lucky. For some reason, they didn't attack you," Yasha half-explained, although he didn't know why himself. But he didn't want people brushing off his ability. The Scary Someone Drinking Tea, Flee On Sight goal was still a thing.

"But I was coughing up blood and everything!" Naruto protested.

Yasha wasn't convinced. "Mm. You haven't seen what happens when they actually _do_ attack. It's not as pretty as coughing up blood."

To be honest, the fact that four had happened had surprised Yasha. Three shadows meant less than a minute. And the shadows never just attacked to a slight degree like that, apart from when they attacked Yasha himself, who had gave the attack command without covering his body in his signature don't-attack-me chakra.

But the Kyuubi's regeneration probably caused the conflict. Either Naruto had a shockingly powerful regeneration, to such an extent even the attacks were restricted to minor internal bleeding – or for some reason they only sampled him. Maybe his subconscious.

To be honest, he doubted the first. Regeneration would focus on internal bleeding first and external second – which was why he felt burning pain on his outside when they attacked him, but nothing on the inside (not that he was calm enough to analyse it at that point). It was almost like they were interacting with the Kyuubi's seal or something, but that wasn't possible; the seal was linked by chakra, but that only activated during extreme emotion, which Naruto probably didn't have.

It was the Eight Trigrams Seal, though. Yasha knew that much. Not that knowing that helped; he didn't know the single thing about fuuinjutsu beside 'here's a seal, activate it with chakra, it does cool things'. He'd only seen storage and explosive seals before.

He'd drained his supply of chakra with his fifteen-odd attempts at _Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu_. He wasn't sure whether that number was impressive; he expected it rather wasn't. He had to work on that. Maybe seal a Bijū in himself to bump up his chakra levels.

He snorted aloud at his thoughts. Someone who didn't even know fuuinjutsu wanting a Bijū inside their chakra system. For all he knew, the bloodline made it completely impossible.

Although… his telepathy, used on Naruto… it might gain him access to the Kyuubi's telepathic link.

Driven by curiosity, he made the telepathy seals for full mental link, laid down as if taking a break, and fired at Naruto. He connected easily – Naruto wasn't moving from where he was lying down either. For all intents, it looked like Yasha had just fallen asleep very rapidly; maybe a chakra drain symptom.

This time, he didn't just relax in his mind, which he idly noted was busy worrying about something… he reached downwards to the seal, felt around for the link.

**_Drip._**

"Well, I'm here, I guess," he thought/said in the link.

* * *

**AN: **Well, yeah. You're there. Whoopie. Hopefully you don't need Sharingan to navigate dat thing.

What you planning to do now, Yasha, have a tea party in the sewers? See if you can rip off the seal and get the Yondaime spectre on your butt? Hope Naruto isn't woken up by two mental voices talking to each other in the seal? Hmm… the options are so endless…

Also, I'm considering starting another fanfic, a self-insert, but honestly, it couldn't be one unless I remove the aspect of my personality that desperately wants to be in a world where you have a vaguely noble purpose from birth ('my family's in danger and must be protected'). The whole 'I can do whatevah I wants I'm a big boy' eventually becomes 'there's too much to do' or 'I don't know what I wants', based on your level of motivation to do anything.

And btw, Yasha is not a self-insert, nor is he from our world. He's a guy with bare minimum information of the future and a couple of objectives, but he's smart enough to wing it (hopefully; the story is focused on _realism_).  
He's smart and gifted at anything Yin-related (which I'm saying Henge is, for a couple of reasons such as Tsunade's seal and how all create-things-from-mental-imagery be Yin), but he's not going to master genjutsu after half-reading a scroll. So he can make very real-looking Henge, hard to see through, but he can't envision what he hasn't met, nor does he have the chakra stores to fire up a mountain-sized biological being from pure chakra.

The whole game mindset Yasha has is from my own brain. Yeah, I'm vaguely psychopathic; I have the full ability to block out all emotional reactions to anything upsetting due to an easy detachment from whatever's physically happening. I would go into more detail, but eh. You're watching a fanfic, not an author.

Anyway, back to the fic: Post frequency is related to how many people follow/favourite/review/interact with this fanfic. I'll keep posting even if that's nil, since well-written but abandoned fanfics make me want to murder people… although I'm not _that _psychopathic yet… \\('- ')/


	18. Guesswork and politics

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 18: Guesswork and politics**_

* * *

**AN:** This chapter contains a lot of detailed planning and attempts to figure Yasha out. Also, some of Yasha's backstory, and Uchiha coup diversion plans with Itachi &amp; Shisui. Yasha's just come from the Hokage office after having a meltdown, and managed to use a strong telepathic connection with Naruto and access the Kyuubi mindscape.  
Great place to visit, a sewer. Hope you enjoy…

* * *

A sewer, filled with golden-brown pipes, trailing along the walls. The pipes were leaking slightly, and there were constant sounds of dripping. He noted his feet were wet, just above the level of his heel. He wasn't sure what the liquid was, but the sewer didn't smell like a sewer. It smelled like… well, like a dog would. A wet dog. _'Fur is fur, I suppose. Maybe the sewer environment is something to do with the fact it's sealed surrounded by his digestive system?'_

He wandered down the corridor, noting the realism in the dark hallway. There was no lights per se, just 'intrinsic lighting', so all the pipes and the water appeared to reflect a small amount of light, even though there was no light source to reflect it…

_'Hell, I can spend days thinking on just that fact. But can I talk to the Kyuubi without Naruto knowing? If not, I have to disconnect instantly, hope it boots Naruto out as well, and pretend nothing happened and Naruto imagined it. Shikaku may have noticed me slumping but he won't do anything to break me out the connection, after all I've pretended not to know about the Kyuubi so far, he'll assume it was an accident. And he won't want me not to divulge that secret.'_

Still, he was almost gleeful. He managed to get into the seal's mindscape so easily, it was almost funny. Could he completely unlock the seal while he was in here as well? Is that what a Yamanaka could do? Or an Uchiha.

_'Well, best not to attempt __**that**__ little gem. Let's see if I can find the Kyuubi… I know he's red, an embodiment of hatred and anger and he's about as tall as a tower, so yeah, shouldn't be too hard to find him. I wonder how I should approach him? Well, hopefully, make a good impression. I'm a dark character, after all; someone like him will respect that.'_

His wanderings didn't appear to go anywhere. The corridors had a lot of branches, but eventually he came across one corridor that was about three times bigger than the rest. He gazed down both of the edges, but couldn't see crap.

_'Hmm… maybe the Kyuubi can't be seen unless Naruto's mind is here too? No, that's not correct. Else this whole mindscape wouldn't be accessible. Where is that damn fox?'_

He held out his hand and felt the air both directions. Eventually, he concluded that didn't tell him anything. The airflow was all but static; temperature felt the same both ways, and the light source was equal in both directions.

He idly wondered if the Fourth had deliberately made the seal's mindscape confusing as all hell so only Naruto could find the fox easily. It seemed like something the Fourth might do; he was a seal genius after all, and he probably knew in advance that this seal's mindscape was laughably easy to get into.

Yasha sighed, and started eeny-meeny-miny-moe.

* * *

"SHIT!" he snapped as he looked at the dead end. He spun around and ran back down the large corridor at full pelt.

"Man, I'm out of shape," he concluded, still not at the other side of the large corridor. He started walking again, catching his breath back.

Suddenly, he saw an ominous red light in the distance. Yasha nearly cheered, but his mind wondered if he could sneak up on the fox, so he remained silent, just punching the air while beaming.

He reached the end of the corridor and could make out the cage in front of him, about twenty metres ahead. There was nothing visible beyond the gate, which towered above him; he estimated the size of the gate was six times his own height, although there was bars above the end of the gate, suggesting it could go further. The Kyuubi was meant to be huge, much larger than that, so it seemed like it would go further.

He strode out with his hands in his pockets, making his way to the front of the seal's gate and sat down in a meditative pose about five metres outside, giving all the impression like he was completely relaxed. There was no response at all from beyond the gate.

His heart was thudding at an incredible rate. He sat there for a few minutes, calming his breathing, but still very tense, waiting for the Kyuubi to notice him. He was prepared for KI, thundering voices, anger, and a strong desire to intimidate him and gain respect.

Kyuubi was _worth_ respect, there was no doubt about it. His chakra levels were off the scale; he needed two powerful seals to contain him. Yasha had no relations to Konoha's previous generations and was pissed at them for how they treated Naruto – granted, the Kyuubi was the original source of that, but you can't blame the messenger when he points out your incompetence. The villagers were incompetent and the Kyuubi's killing just brought that out to the open; child abuse was meant to be the worst in crime you could find, and it incited quite a lot of the village to it; just how disgusting was this village?

Frankly, if Itachi hadn't been a pacifist, he probably wouldn't have bothered saving one of Konoha's clans. Least of all the Uchiha. They were arrogant farts that were obsessed with power to such a degree that someone could slaughter their entire clan and no one would put it past them nor consider it unusual enough to doubt it. How much did that tell you?

Well, he might save the Uchiha children. Those that hadn't been brainwashed into the clan's pride/nobility issues.

_'So, give respect. Use sama? Well, why not. I'd call a ninja who was fifty foot tall with that honorific. And if clan heads can earn it, the Kyuubi certainly needs it.'_

Luckily, his voice wasn't shaky. He was nervous, very much so, but his voice was fine.

"Kyuubi-sama," he called.

Two huge eyes opened in front of him. Red iris, slit black pupils, but more importantly, the slit was bigger than Yasha's whole body was. The two huge eyes regarded him with concealed confusion, almost amusement, although it was hard to discern emotion behind those demonic mirrors.

The booming voice a few seconds later was loud enough to make him want to cover his ears and he had to think hard to work out what was said. **_"The Death Release user? Why are you here?"_**

"It's great scenery," Yasha fought to keep the quaver out of his voice as he defaulted to sarcasm. "Just kidding, this is shit. No wonder you're a demon if people put you in crappy seals like this."

A puff of hot air, with a smell Yasha didn't breathe in, signified the amusement of the giant fox. **_"Answer the question, brat."_**

Yasha sighed. He didn't really know himself why he was here, it was mostly curiosity that even led him to attempt it. _'Damnit, shoulders, stop fucking shaking.'_

"Well, I hate Konoha, and you hate Konoha. I wanted to congratulate you for exposing them."

A somewhat larger puff of hot air greeted that statement. Yasha could make out teeth and something that looked like fur beyond the gate now. The Kyuubi meanwhile was somewhat intrigued by the level of malice he could feel from Yasha.

He went on. "People are so willing to give up morals with emotion as an excuse. It's not what Rikudō Sennin-sama wanted when he gave chakra to the world."

The eyes narrowed, the slit becoming even thinner. The teeth moved into an angry appearance. The Kyuubi was glaring at him, he realised with a gulp. **_"What would a brat like _****_you_****_ know about the great Rikudō Sennin?"_**

Yasha sighed, his shaking emphasising the movement into a shudder. The Kyuubi was not on good terms with Naruto, so he wouldn't spill these secrets. "I have knowledge of the future. I met with the Dimension Release user; I've been sent back in time. There's a group called Akatsuki who are out to re-summon the Jūbi and create it into a weapon. Which means sealing you into it."

The eyes regarded him again, widening in confusion, then realisation. **_"All three cursed bloodlines are unlocked again? That explains why you're here."_**

Now it was Yasha's time to look confused. "Excuse me, Kyuubi-sama. What do you know about my bloodline?"

The eyes regarded him balefully but eventually he decided to tell him, just the minimum though. He was pleasingly polite and respectful, the first human so far who had cordially addressed him on their first meeting, and the Kyuubi didn't want to end the conversation just yet. Plus, the amount of malice Yasha had within him was quite enjoyable. **_"Death, Heaven, Dimension; all three are cursed bloodlines, all related. They are formed by extremities of spiritual chakra balances, once the Rikudō Sennin released chakra to all of cursed humanity. Death counters Heaven, and Dimension is the bridge between them. The first two carriers wreaked havoc until they were recognised and had their bloodlines sealed by the Rikudō Sennin – he said it was fortunate the Dimension user of that time did not recognise his bloodline, but he was forced to watch the carrier for much of his lifetime."_**

Yasha was stunned by this news. He had no idea the bloodlines were related. And Death Release was a way cooler name than Heaven Release. What the hell would Heaven Release even look like?

"I haven't encountered the Heaven user, Kyuubi-sama. Nor have I see the Dimension one in this timeline. He's sent me back three times; this is the final time."

**_"Three times?!"_** The Bijū repeated in disbelief. **_"What did you fail at so often? What were you preventing?"_**

Yasha cringed at the rebuke; he honestly didn't remember failing, if the instruction scroll didn't say it, he wouldn't have even known. "The first time, I lost all memories of the future. The Dimension user hadn't expected that. The second time, I went to the Third Hokage and warned him, but the events transpired much the same, possibly worse. I don't remember; at any rate the Dimension user wasn't satisfied, I was sent back once more, and decided to go covert."

He paused to add a little tension before his next statement. "Beyond your sealing, before that, the Uchiha Clan is going to be massacred by one of its members, at the order of a Council member, called Danzō. That's predicted in a couple of months."

He decided not to tell the Kyuubi about Sasuke's marking; it wouldn't interest him. "Following that, there is an invasion by Sound and Sand on Konoha. Orochimaru, one of the Third's students and a Sannin, had killed the Kage of Sand and pretended to be him; but he is the covert ruler of Sound. During this invasion, the Third Hokage dies fighting his student, but the invasion fails anyway.

"The Akatsuki eventually invades Konoha. They consist of very powerful S-class missing-nin. Most of the village is wiped out, but more importantly, according to what I was told, your container is captured, despite his unsealing of you when he sees the damage done to the village. At least, at some point, the Jūbi is revived."

He paused, this time for breath. "I have a few additional details, but that's further in the future, and they don't relate to you, so I won't bother you with them. I have no memories nor personal experiences of this timeline; I was sent back from only a month ahead, and lost the other timelines anyway before I arrived."

The Kyuubi snorted. **_"I can guess that from your pitiful height, brat."_**

Yasha felt a spark of anger rise, and he pushed down the feeling. "Please, Kyuubi-sama. At least be a bit more civil. I needn't have warned you, after all. My name is Yasha."

The Kyuubi smirked at him, pleased to have caused irritation. He had been in a bad mood for a good while, but with this new-found information and a pleasantly respectful guest, he had decided to humour him rather than forcibly eject him.

Respectful guests were probably not likely to come by a lot… even when the brat Naruto finally got his head out his rear end and realised why everyone was scared of him, the brat was horrible with even honorifics, so Kurama predicted he wouldn't be respectful, even to the greatest of the Bijū.

If his cursed container hadn't been so keen on not messing up his friendship with the Death Release carrier, there would be no honorifics used more than once a year.

Which made Kurama question: if Yasha was hiding this much future information, what was his plans? **_"So, brat, what are your plans for that brat Naruto?"_**

Yasha felt his anger grow again. The Bijū wasn't listening to his request for politeness at all. _'Fine…'_

He turned the anger into sadism deftly; it was something he was well used to doing. "Well, Kyuubi, since you asked so politely: I'm Naruto's only friend, so he'll be around me nearly all the time; and with Death Release genjutsu, I can control his mind without him being able to cancel it. Essentially, if I say so, you and him are my bitches."

With that, he disconnected. It was fun having the last word in an argument. And what he said wasn't untrue. The Kyuubi was still sealed in that mindscape, behind the gate; he couldn't break Naruto out of any illusions without extreme difficulty, and if Yasha's hypothesis was correct, Death Release could make unbreakable genjutsu anyway.

All he needed to do in genjutsu was convince Naruto that people were saying things they weren't; just imagine what would happen if the Third 'told' Naruto he was no longer a ninja, and he was exiled from the village. And Yasha had been hurt by the villagers and conveniently escaped to leave with him. Woo, a Jinchūriki at his beck and call.

And what if the Third was 'told' Naruto had fled years ago and he had used a temporary amnesia seal to hide it?

…okay, so he couldn't come up with something realistic on the spot. But a few days' thought would give something solid enough to get Naruto to go with him and the village to not chase him; or to fail at chasing him.

…okay, maybe not even that. The village had the Inuzuka, Aburame, Hyuuga, and Kami knew what else tracking clans… Kakashi alone was an excellent tracker and had a personal interest in Naruto, what with being his sensei's son and all.

Not to mention any ANBU or jounin that Zack had neglected to tell him about as they weren't related to his mission. And ignoring Root ANBU. He couldn't even _detect any_ flavour of ANBU.

At any rate, it was definitely against his interest to get out of the village. There was no form of training out in the wild, unless he went to another village, which would desire the Jinchūriki just as much. And that was ignoring Akatsuki, who were meant to be even better than ANBU level. He'd be shooting himself in the foot, or more proportionally, blowing his whole leg off.

_'I should've thought about that before I nearly murdered someone in the Hokage's office,'_ he thought, scowling at himself. Naruto could be controlled with genjutsu, eventually, if his hypothesis was correct. He wasn't sure about the Kyuubi being controllable behind the seal, but with Naruto being the Bijū's container, that didn't matter; the Kyuubi wouldn't be able to interfere with the genjutsu without the seal being unlocked completely.

But to be honest, it left a sour taste in his mouth to think of manipulating a friend who had already been abused all his life. It was Naruto's one true friendship, and he was considering ignoring that for this own benefit. It was a level of selfishness and cruelty Yasha just wasn't comfortable with.

'Not comfortable with' didn't mean he _couldn't_ do it. He just needed a very good reason. If he left Konoha, he'd need serious thought beforehand: whether to leave Naruto behind without his friend and forecasts of upcoming battles… or otherwise manipulate the blond into leaving himself.

Then again, any reason that made Yasha leave was probably to do with the blond, anyway – people had no qualms with him here, other than his whole sneaking into the village and the bloodline's natural aversion factor. People were scared of him instinctively, and mistrusted him instinctively – it was a good thing the instruction scroll had warned him about that mistrust explicitly, or otherwise it would have remained a lingering suspicion that Yasha would never verify.

Yasha was observant; he had seen the child abusers and who was affected amongst the kids. They were the ones as quiet as he was. They weren't malicious like him, though. They were just quiet, and too sensitive for their age, their eyes a bit _too_ wary. Where most kids would be trying to get popular, they wanted to just fade into the background and interact with a few chosen people that they could trust.

Observation gives you intelligence. Experiencing abuse, particularly sexual, gives you another mental trait entirely.

Yasha had been vaguely aware he wasn't liked from first impressions. People who saw him for the first time tended to look at him, frown slightly, then either look dismissive or frown harder. It varied, but everyone reacted… every caretaker, every person in the street, the Hokage… no one was excluded from it. Although ninjas could quell their facial reactions, he could tell from the way their eyes lingered a bit too long.

And then there was two outcomes: they either disliked him (although rarely did adults act on it), or they were perplexed by him. He'd noticed most people he befriended were hard to get to trust him. Even when he'd done nothing wrong to them, they still thought he was lying most times. It made for a lot of motivation to be able to learn how to manipulate people into trusting him, that was for sure.

He flipped open a genjutsu scroll and idly wondered if the Third was thinking about him just now.

* * *

The Third most certainly was. Three powerful shinobi were now sitting down in thought, analysing the events that had just happened in front of them. Reports of civilian injuries and mass knockouts were coming in.

Shikaku had sent a Kage Bunshin to his home shortly after Yasha left. They were as clever as he was, and he doubted Yasha would do anything that would dispel it. He disliked the ripping away of half of his chakra though, and both him and his Kage Bunshin couldn't use Nara techniques easily, since half their Yin chakra was gone, which made the techniques unstable.

"That was explosive," Shikaku offered his summary to get the ball rolling. "He's not aware of Kyuubi, or he's hiding it. He's made a few suggestions that he does know, but the way he's referred to Naruto's problem as 'circumstances', he's probably referring to the villagers' general treatment of him."

The Third nodded assent. "The ANBU squad tasked with watching him reported that he had to fend off villagers from his home just two nights ago. He's had to get Naruto to use Henge before he can enter stores to shop. He's also chased up multiple people who overpriced Naruto and intimidated them using his bloodline."

A grin crossed the old man's face, and Shikaku let his face form one as well. Idiots like that deserved intimidation at the very least. Quite a few Nara had died, and Shikaku was hardly pleased about it, but he knew better than to take it out on the container.

Inoichi spoke up now. "He's obviously intelligent. His perspective on reality is detached, and his sensitivity as well, but his empathic ability is unaffected, and excellent; although he covers it up with apparent apathy, probably due to embarrassment. Case in point when Naruto was hurt just then; he reassured him even though it was apparent that the scenario was not as under control as he claimed. His maturity is higher than average, but not unusual."

The Third added his bit. "ANBU also reported he made no immediate move on Naruto when he encountered him at the Academy, on the first day there; he held a short conversation in class, but only moved to befriend him later on, when he found Naruto had no lunch prepared."

Inoichi nodded. "It's likely he wanted to seem unsuspicious, but since he still ended up moving on the same day, he's either too impatient or Naruto's appearance affected him more than he could handle."

The Third sighed, adding what he knew would emphasise how little ability to watch the kid he had. It was disappointing; the village leader was looked at as being in full control. Damn that civilian council. "I've been informed Naruto was kicked out of the home he was in after they assumed he assaulted a caretaker. Although we know it's Yasha's work, and he did it for good reason. If Yasha had a good control of the killing intent's area of effect, that person could very well be a corpse."

"I'm not sure he's better off for being kept alive," Shikaku responded with a dark twinkle in his eye. The caretaker that had caused those injuries had been sitting in T&amp;I with an 'indefinite' release date, much to the delight of Anko.

Ibiki had turned a blind eye to her actions, but hadn't been involved with the man himself – he specialised in torture that actually had a purpose (besides causing pain). Although hearing what the guy had done from Anko… reportedly, it had made him reconsider that.

Being the Jounin Commander did leave you with a lot of ability to eavesdrop.

Inoichi, being the former head of T&amp;I, smiled slightly as well; he had also heard the rumours about what had happened with that child abuser.

Shikaku tapped his fingers together. "Alright. From my questioning, he's completely unfamiliar with genjutsu as a tool; he knows how to dispel and what it consists of. Obviously, he has no need to dispel in most cases. The sponsor, who sent him into the village, is a male; Yasha respects him but is not sure why he specifically was chosen by the sponsor. He also considers the information given to him about future enemies to be completely reliable information, and thinks there will be some sort of murder very soon."

"How soon? Any estimates?" The Hokage pressed.

Shikaku sighed. "He deliberately only refers to it vaguely. A loose estimate is within the week. He only implied it; saying 'soon' and 'not long'. And then of course, he implies he could die within the week. Although someone like him thinks on the long-term primarily, so it could expand up to a year or so."

The Hokage nodded. "He's requested the removal of the ANBU squad tailing him, in the name of stopping the murders. He says he could save 'less than ten people'."

"That's alarming," Inoichi said, psychoanalysing with more confidence now he witnessed Yasha's personality first-hand. "Someone as accurate as that with his mental filtering, and ability to manipulate, would place a heavy emphasis on how something is worded; wording is the primary way to manipulate people.

"So, normally, he'd say an _exact figure_; if he wanted to be ambiguous he'd use 'several' or some other term, not a 'less than'. Either he doubts his own ability to save them, or he genuinely doesn't know how many people are being targeted that are saveable. If it's the latter, that means his method of escape is limited, and whatever murder is happening is probably much more than just ten people."

"A mass murder that large?" The Hokage echoed distantly, shocked.

"Of some sort. He's not provided any details, but it does sound like a huge collection of murders." Shikaku thought back. "He kept associating darkness with large groups, normally the entirety of Konoha. On some level he's blaming the entire village for it, so it _is_ possible the entire village is targeted. Although he's not requested to leave…?"

Shikaku's question trailed off as he saw the Third Hokage had frozen up in alarm, the wizened leader having put two and two together. _'Yasha is going to interact with the Uchiha coup. He's planning to save people from the resulting civil war? Why did he think me, as the Hokage, is still incapable of saving them? Why didn't he think there is a peaceful solution? Why so few people?'_

Yasha had made it clear: he didn't like Konoha, because of its treatment of Naruto. And there was no clan that detested the Kyuubi's effects on the village (and thus, Naruto) more than the Uchiha.

_'If he could save the entire clan from attacking the village… he probably wouldn't,'_ the Third realised grimly. _'Since he hates the village and even more reason to hate the clan… but his involvement with Shisui… what is he planning with him?'_

It was something separate to Shisui himself, that was for sure; else Shisui wouldn't have angrily demanded answers yesterday. But if it was related to the coup, why want privacy when talking with the Hokage? Okay, the coup was top secret, but the Hokage knew of Yasha's knowledge of the coup already.

Hiding information was born from a desire to be in control, and unfortunately, the boy who liked seeing the world as a game and people as pieces on the board, _was_ in control.

If the Hokage refused Yasha any request, the boy could leave Konoha (he wasn't even genin, so couldn't be marked a missing-nin), and his leaving would devastate Naruto.

Or Yasha could attack Naruto, possibly kill him before the tail moved in, although it was almost definite he'd die afterwards, the resulting effect on the village's military reputation would be devastating. His suicidal tendencies would make him ignore his own demise if there was a greater good the sponsor had drilled into him. Plus, mental seals were normally made for sleeper agents, which was a very unnerving possibility.

Or Yasha could even just clam up and abort his plan to save those people – assuming it _wasn't_ just a trick just to gain access to his sponsor and receive new instructions. To be fair, that was unlikely and could be monitored anyway; if the sponsor had left or entered the village, the barrier around it would make it detectable, and there were few village exits, all monitored.

Maybe the sponsor was the cause of that chakra presence that had somehow appeared within the Uchiha compound a few days back, entirely bypassing the barrier? The Uchiha of course had noticed from the Sharingan-wielding police force scattered around the compound, but no one had found whoever the person was, nor any trace of the method the person used to appear.

If it was the sponsor or someone under his command, it was odd he had sent a message through Yasha when he could have easily appeared within Shisui's bedroom and dropped the scroll himself.

Anyway, whoever Yasha had picked to be saved, the Third didn't know. Probably some lucky souls within the village who would otherwise be at the forefront of the battle during the coup.

It explained the vague references to dates; Itachi hadn't reported a date being set, and the Third doubted the sponsor would know in advance.

_'But next to the Uchiha compound was just civilians. He wants to save __**civilians?'**_

Hiruzen scowled. He didn't know Yasha's motives nor any details of the plan to save people; just that it involved basic genjutsu, saved less than ten people, and even the boy thought it wasn't guaranteed to work. There was no way to get him to spill more information.

He couldn't torture nor interrogate the kid without Naruto getting upset at him, even with good reasoning to explain to the blond. Yasha was well within his legal rights to exit the village. Hiruzen couldn't get Naruto to ask Yasha of his plan; the little blond maelstrom wasn't capable of hiding his motives, definitely not with someone as smart as Yasha.

He couldn't use mind techniques from Yamanaka nor genjutsu, the bloodline cancelled them out. He couldn't even seal the bloodline's chakra to get rid of its genjutsu-proof effects, as when it was missing, the insects or darkness particles were completely uncontrolled and would kill Yasha instantly; and if not that, the bugs would be released from his body and there was enough in there to create KI levels that caused physical damage to his surroundings.

How bugs that small released detectable KI, he wasn't sure, but he had detected that much from monitoring Yasha's regeneration.

The insects were so small even Sharingan couldn't track individual ones, and they could infiltrate any human's chakra system with no detection and no way to get them to exit; an _incredibly_ dangerous scenario. More importantly, the chance Yasha himself would die from his uncontrolled insects was highly likely, they'd already turned on him severely once before.

Overt, covert and every way in-between seemed out the window. Threatening would fall flat: Yasha knew well that Naruto was heavily attached to him and that the Hokage was fond of him more than just a regular villager. The Hokage couldn't threaten the blond nor Yasha himself for the same reason (even if the Hokage _could_ bring himself to threaten Minato's son).

Yasha knew Naruto was important, even if he didn't apparently know he was a Jinchūriki… although with those flickers of red chakra it was possible the clever kid had smelled something was off. And besides Naruto, Yasha had no people here he was regularly in contact with. Shisui had threatened him despite his interactions, and Iruka had been deceived by him and easily manipulated.

With the blond turned against the Hokage due to mistreatment of his friend or himself, both had no reason to remain loyal to the village. Plus, Yasha saw people as game pieces, even Naruto. He could just shutter the outside world and discard whatever they did to the blond as unimportant… a terrifying thought but according to Inoichi, very possible.

Flattery wouldn't work either, as Yasha was too smart and understood the current scenario all too well. Any sort of flattery would be completely obvious. That was why you could only really use it on the less intelligent or heavily proud people.

That just left bribery in the bag of persuasion methods. He couldn't bribe Yasha; he couldn't offer shadow manipulation training, as that was Shikaku's right to offer. Yasha was interested in genjutsu but there was no reason to progress beyond basics if his bloodline made his genjutsu unbreakable. If he refused to give him anything, his bloodline made him so powerful that wouldn't be a serious problem for him until he wanted to make from chuunin to jounin.

Actually, no, he could bribe. First, a genin promotion. Or chuunin. Training was needed for chuunin, but those could both be done; with Yasha's dangerous bloodline, and high enough brain capacity for Shikaku to acknowledge it, chuunin was a rank he would deserve in months (although jounin was nowhere near him). Plus, it wasn't exactly unprecedented to appointed at a young age.

Extra genjutsu and advanced training could be offered. There was some scrolls with strong jutsu, and some with kinjutsu – forbidden techniques, he wasn't sure if he could even _ethically_ give those up.

He could even consider sending Yasha to ANBU – neither age nor experience wasn't a factor for being admitted to that. Once he got a lid on his KI, his bloodline would make him perfect for a role amongst the black ops, dealing out assassinations. Of course, it'd place him firmly within Danzō's eye.

He'd need to make a thoroughly unbalanced bribe for Yasha to even consider it, though. And no matter what he offered, Yasha couldn't describe his sponsor and could easily refuse without any foreseeable consequence.

It was a dilemma. Yasha was clearly of the opinion the coup was going to go ahead, within the week in fact, and he was planning to save people from it.

Now that the Third knew, he tried to see from Yasha's perspective. He'd judged the villagers in general as filth, but was smart enough to know a group opinion was not every member's opinion. And he knew people were going to die; with a certainty which was probably gained from his mindset of people being scum and _wanting_ to fight. His plan was not to attack anyone, lest he be booted out of Konoha, but rescue certain people using genjutsu, from either the Uchiha compound, or the part of the village they would attack.

He wasn't sure he could do it, but he didn't want the Hokage's help nor any observation regardless. And he wasn't planning to stop the entire coup, because he definitely didn't think he was capable of that. He didn't even pretend to be capable of saving the less than ten he was planning to.

Sarutobi coughed. There was still the question of who he was planning to save, and he had completely forgotten Shikaku's question in the midst of his own thoughts. "Inoichi, who would you say Yasha would think was worth anything with his mindset?"

Inoichi turned his keen gaze on him, still mentally considering the boy left and right, back and front. "From the two cases I've seen with that mindset they agree on… firstly, shinobi pacifists – powerful people who didn't want to fight, but were very capable of it. Those without power were considered as not having a worthy opinion.

"He would also like people that are easy to read and manipulate, so people that are simple, but not overly stupid; stupid people are generally disliked. Eccentric people can go both ways but can be seen as amusing pieces. Beyond that, very young children, who haven't made the mistakes of their parents."

"Very young children?!" the Hokage repeated, realisation coming upon him. _'Haven't the ANBU reported Yasha spoke to a large amount of pregnant women?'_

Inoichi nodded. "Hai. People with this mindset see each person, or piece, as individual, children included. If someone were to kill a friend of Yasha's, he would attack them back, but not any kids of theirs. He'd deem them separate, unless they were old enough and made enough contact with their parents to gain their mindset to kill. In cases where that was a question, he'd simply ask the children if they agreed with what their parents had done, unless he was just unwilling to make the effort…"

The Yamanaka frowned thoughtfully. "If Yasha's killed before, with his bloodline he calls Death Release, he'll have no problem killing anyone he wants. The way he's named his bloodline shows he thinks he has a natural right to kill whoever, for whatever reasons he sees fit. Fortunately the mindset he has also makes him put death as something hard to reverse and with a lot of fallout from relatives and friends of the deceased – so he'll kill people rarely, even if he considers it his right to dish out."

The Hokage put the pieces together. Yasha wasn't meant to interfere with the coup; that was why Shisui received a scroll, not a verbal message. So he didn't know details of who was going to be involved or killed in the coup. But he decided to speak to pregnant women near the compound.

He was going in blind, planning to save the villagers' children, despite being unsure if he would succeed.

* * *

Yasha was still reading the genjutsu scroll when Shikaku spoke. "Hokage-sama?"

His gaze shot up in surprise. _'A visit so soon after __**that**__? He's not going to ask for the scrolls back, is he?'_

The wizened leader gazed down at the two boys reading side-by-side. "Hello, Shikaku-san. I've come to speak with Yasha-kun."

"Oh, sure," Shikaku replied lazily, wandering out of sight to dispel. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow as the Hokage took the class newcomer aside.

"Yasha-kun."

"Hai, Hokage-sama?" Yasha asked politely as the two stepped into the house, out of earshot of Naruto.

_'Back to sama now,'_ the Hokage thought wryly. He cleared his throat for emphasis. "I will approve of the tail being removed, but only for a day. You have to pick the day."

Yasha fixed him with an incredulous look. "Seriously? That just makes the whole tailing thing pointless, handing control to the person being watched."

Hiruzen smiled. His weak attempt at information extract was going nowhere. Well, it was worth a shot. "Three days, then."

Yasha's look faded to seriousness. "No, I'm going to need it gone for good. At least until the Kyuubi turns up again for real."

Hiruzen's heart skipped a beat and his gaze drifted to where Naruto was. _'Surely…'_

Yasha shook his head, smirking slightly. "I'm kidding about the Kyuubi." The smirk faded back to dead seriousness. "Sandaime, I need it gone for good. Show me a little trust. Even if my sponsor's all mysterious and unknown, you can just ask yourself if I'd hurt Naruto or something he holds dear."

_'Well, that was devious. But definitely true – Yasha would never do that. Wasn't that the same reason I originally accepted him into the village? He's forcing me into total acceptance and using Naruto to do it. And that little act in my office…'_

"Yasha-kun, there's cracks in the floor in my office."

Yasha scowled, clear anger at himself crossing his face. "It wasn't my idea to put them there. I never intended to."

Sarutobi fixed Yasha with a forgiving smile. His emotions for Naruto had got the better of him – they weren't faked, then. "I know that much. Fine, I'll remove the tail, even though they stopped me from attacking a Kyuubi earlier."

Yasha scratched the side of his head sheepishly. "I'm sure the Kyuubi was bigger than that. I read about it in an Academy textbook."

"It was quite large, yes… the size of the monument. With the tails, he was even larger." The Hokage's eyes took on a far-away appearance. "It was impressive you managed to Henge that size, though. It shows a mastery of the transformation."

"Hehe…" Yasha looked up and smiled genuinely at the approval. "I've only known Henge for a week."

"What?!" The Hokage gaped before he caught himself. He was stunned. _'Did Shikaku not even question that?'_

His reaction was being analysed keenly. Yasha was pleasantly surprised Shikaku hadn't been sharing his conversations with the Third. The amount Yasha knew ninjutsu for and where he got training from would be a key factor in how dangerous Yasha was; he was surprised it wasn't mentioned. Clearly the Third's tentative trust of him didn't extend to other village adults. _'That's __**excellent**__. If that's the case; and the Third isn't involving anyone else with his investigation of me… I have nearly unrestricted access to anyone I want to question, now completely unrestricted with the tail gone. I suppose it makes sense he didn't tell anyone else – no one should catch wind of the Uchiha coup. That's probably the reason I was being monitored by the ANBU anyway.'_

He looked up at the old man and back down to the floor, hiding his grin.

Then the wily devil spoke, a bit of smugness to his tone. "Well, if you need help with saving those kids, let me know."

Yasha only _just_ suppressed his reaction. The Professor was definitely smart; he'd somehow linked who was going to be killed and what group Yasha was planning to save, and Yasha didn't remember revealing anything like that. The brunette hastily donned a confused look and a questioning tone to match. "I'm not sure what you mean?"

Hiruzen simply smiled and vanished in a puff of chakra smoke. Yasha stepped back, coughing. "Frickin' shadow clone bastard…" he muttered venomously as he walked back to the ever-present blond. "Naruto! The Hokage just pissed me off. Can we prank him later?"

Naruto looked up with a double-take, then grinned. "Sure!"

"Do you have any paint left? I think his monument is looking a bit dull. It could use brightening up."

Naruto's grin widened as his friend sat next to him and they began to detail the plans.

* * *

Yasha and Naruto eventually decided for lunch. Shikaku extended the expected generosity, being the host, and his wife (a somewhat strict-looking woman, named Yoshino), was happy enough to quiz Yasha on his background while they ate.

"So what's your name, Uchiha-kun?" she began, brushing at the three stray strands of hair on her forehead.

Naruto choked on his food, fixing Yasha with a wide-eyed look. Yasha shrugged at him. It wasn't _impossible_ he was an Uchiha, his basic looks matched… but even if he was, with the darkness swarming inside his eyes, who knew if it was even possible to activate the Sharingan? Plus, the Uchiha were all about pride of their bloodline, they wouldn't abandon a kid of theirs.

Shikaku meanwhile just sighed quietly. Trust his wife to start drilling the kid as well, she was quite the gossiper.

"The people call me Yasha-sama," their guest replied cheerfully. _'One should only make a __**slightly**__ weird impression first time around; too much too soon and the folks will just be driven off.' _You had to show there was sanity behind your insanity… at least, with the people you wanted to befriend. "I'm not an Uchiha, though a lot of people think I look like one."

"Oh?" She gave him a reprieve to take a few more mouthfuls in comfortable silence, before following up with another question. "Where do your parents live?"

For an orphan, that question had all the grace and tact of a mating water buffalo. Yasha knew it would be a straightforward question if his parents were alive and still around. But since they weren't, he fell back on his normal defence: sarcastic apathy (although a low level of it. He wanted friendship with Nara folk after the conversation was over).

"I'm not sure. They neglected to tell me that for the past… oh, twelve years." Yasha admired her shaken expression before he went on. "I have a cursed bloodline, you see. They couldn't handle that level of awesome. So I'm effectively an orphan."

Shikamaru also looked quite stunned. He knew he could depend on his mother to analyse the class newcomer (it wasn't often she was the first to hear someone's backstory), but Yasha's casual attitude to life-changing facts was obviously a defence mechanism – and it was brutally apathetic, both to the events and to those who were involved. In her second question, she made him defensive. The atmosphere was now tense, even as his mother hurriedly back-pedalled.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Yasha-kun," Shikaku offered calmly, defusing the situation with a less touchy subject. "How did you get to Konoha?"

_'Ah, a history lesson. He's still analysing me, but I don't think this is a secret anyway. Might as well tell all; I'm going to have to tell Naruto anyway, and he can't keep it a secret. I've already established Shikaku's not talking to the Hokage,'_ Yasha mused.

Shikaku had actually deliberately left that piece of information about Yasha's short-term knowledge of ninjutsu out, predicting it was likely to come up with the Third's questioning. It was a gamble that had paid off.

"Alright." Yasha smiled. "Don't worry, Yoshino-san, I'm not upset. You wouldn't know.

"Anyway, my parents produced me, named me, and abandoned me in the same day. My bloodline is related to shadows, but it's actually control of ridiculously small, carnivorous insect swarms. The nearby orphanage, at the north of Fire Nation, took me in their care. It wasn't a ninja orphanage, Naruto-kun.

"About two weeks ago, I was contacted by my… sponsor. He had a personal interest in Konoha, and got wind of some enemy plans. He offered to send me here, where I could learn about my bloodline and how to manipulate shadows, aka this Nara clan," Yasha gestured around vaguely, "and he gave me a lot of money to settle here until I was self-sufficient. I snuck into Konoha, was found out, but the Hokage accepted me anyway. Using the sponsor's money, I bought a house, which is where I now live."

"And your sponsor had no ulterior motives?" Shikaku pressed.

Yasha shrugged, as if uncertain. He wasn't meant to remember that. "No, not really. He put a mind seal on me, a volatile one that causes pain if I try to identify him. I don't remember how he pulled that off, as my bloodline protects me from genjutsu, so he must've sealed that memory too.

"But one of his commands was that I didn't have to contact him at all, nor get any future commands from him. He has… people in the village, informants, who can track how well I'm doing anyway. I have no way to contact him, apart from screaming with a loudspeaker and hoping one of those informants passes it on."

Naruto and Yoshino were slack-jawed. The blond spoke up first. "So you're really rich now?!"

Yasha rolled his eyes. Trust Naruto to ignore the most important details. "Yep. I'm probably the richest person my age this side of the Fire Daimyo's palace. But he won't be sending me any more money, so I have to conserve until I make genin."

"That's cool! How much do you have?!"

Yasha coughed. "Enough to support myself until Academy graduation. Let's put it that way."

"Yeah, but how much?" Naruto pressed, not picking up on the unsubtle hint at all.

Naruto found himself at the receiving end of a withering glare and hurriedly retracted his statement. "Gomen… you're right, I don't need to know."

"Damn straight. I won't have to work on street corners, anyway."

Shikaku nearly coughed the tea out of his nose and flushed red. Yasha just looked on at his food with a scowl, defusing the rebuke that Yoshino was already too shaken to throw at him. Naruto didn't understand the street corner statement at all, and strangely enough, neither did Shikamaru.

The Nara Clan Head spoke up slowly. "I think that would be a bit… extreme, if you needed money. I'm sure Hokage-sama would support you."

Yasha blinked at him innocently. "Why is working at a corner stall extreme?"

Shikamaru instantly worked out there was a double meaning there. He never saw his dad blush before. Yasha was _good_.

Yasha's innocent look faded into a stiff expression as he turned back to his food. "Konoha has a military dictatorship, Shikaku-san. And the council that appointed the dictator doesn't like me due to the people I hang around with." His gaze grew harder. "Even if the Hokage wanted to give me money, it'd have to come out of his personal funds. And I'm not going to be obligated to the Hokage."

Yoshino looked confused. "There are worse people to have obligations to, Yasha-kun."

Yasha scowled darkly. "He's a man that in a few months is capable of sending me on a suicide mission. And right now, he can order my torture or extermination. I don't want any attachment to him."

"Jiji wouldn't do that!" Naruto blurted out, cutting off Yasha's cynicism. "He's nice!"

The other people at the table nodded their agreement. Shikaku could see Naruto wasn't going to persuade Yasha at all, so he added, "I've known Hiruzen for many years, Yasha-kun. He takes great care of his villagers, _especially_ the children."

Yasha turned away. "Hmph. There is a reason I'm not completely sold on that idea."

Shikaku remained blank-faced, while Yoshino looked puzzled then thoughtful as she glanced over at Naruto.

There was an awkward pause before Yasha turned back, the shadows moving from his face as the brunette dismissed it. "Eh, whatever. I have a few months to get to know him. He's been nice so far, but I just don't trust people easily."

"You said that," Naruto muttered to himself, remembering.

"Hmm?"

"You said you didn't trust people easily," Naruto repeated a bit louder.

"Mm…" was Yasha's eloquent response. "I'll trust a village of emotional idiots when they actually gain some logic."

Shikaku was about to protest the blanket insult, but realised that it would be seen as getting emotional, proving Yasha's point. So he countered with the most unemotional clan. "You sound like an Aburame."

"The insect clan?" Seeing Shikaku's questioning look, Yasha added, "My sponsor told me about them."

"One of them is in our class, Shino," Shikamaru interjected.

"The sunglasses guy?" Yasha wondered thoughtfully, "Does he have the same problem as me?"

"What problem?" the Nara boy enquired. He couldn't see why Yasha would need sunglasses and not wear them.

"The insects are inside my eyes as well as my chakra system. I have very tiny insects… so it's hard to…" Yasha's speaking broke off when Naruto practically rammed his nose into his friend's cheek trying to see the insects. "…see them… Oi, Naruto, knock it off."

"I can't see them, dattebayo," Naruto huffed.

Yasha rolled his eyes. "Well, no, like I said, they're hard to see. And you're useless at seeing in the dark."

"I can see in the dark!" Naruto retorted indignantly.

"Huh," Yasha replied, not believing him, but unable to retort without giving away they slept in the same bedroom. And that was a conversation he didn't want to have around Nara that would be able to manipulate him with it. "Fine then. See if you can see them."

Naruto watched, staring into his pupils _very_ closely, the tickling breathing down Yasha's neck making his mouth twitch towards a smile.

Suddenly his cerulean blue eyes widened. "I saw them!" he yelled.

There was a loud cracking sound as Yasha's fist backhanded into Naruto's face, throwing him backwards off the bench with a shocked expression. "Oh, sorry, Naruto. Some idiot screamed in my ear, set off my reflexes," Yasha said flatly, resuming his lunch and watching him roll around on the floor.

"ITAI! That hurt, Yasha- teme!" Naruto yelped, clutching his nose and rolling on the floor.

Naruto's nose was pumping blood out in quite impressive amounts. Shikamaru mentally noted not to upset Yasha… who was currently smiling down at Naruto's plight in a rather twisted way.

"Don't worry. I'll get my insects to eat the blood off your face." Yasha held out his hand towards Naruto, who backed away hurriedly, nearly whacking into the dining-room wall. "I should've hit harder, I might've sent the bone shards into your little brain."

_'Do not, __**ever**__, antagonise Yasha,'_ Shikamaru amended his mental note, rather alarmed by Yasha's casual display of sadism. His parents looked shocked at the violence at the dinner table and completely unsure of how to react.

"If you put bloodstains on Nara-san's floor I will not be happy. Seriously," Yasha warned him, turning to Shikaku. "Shikaku-san, where is your bathroom?"

Shikaku blinked. "It's second on the right…" he barely finished before Naruto was in there.

Yasha inspected the dining-room floor – surprisingly Naruto hadn't spilt any blood. He idly wondered when the Kyuubi would have finished healing his nose – he hadn't broken it or anything, just gave it a good whack. He did it out of reflexive anger and shock – he _could_ have suppressed it, he just thought it would be unnecessary to.

Yasha looked up to see three people gaping at him with varying amounts of disbelief. He hastily quelled the stares. "He learns by physically doing something. So, eh, this helps him with situational awareness. If I had just told him off, he wouldn't have learnt it so well."

"That's still a little harsh, Yasha," Shikaku told him bluntly. "I'm disappointed."

Shikamaru was a bit perturbed. Shikaku was correcting Yasha like he would a student or _son_ of his. _'Well, Yasha's an orphan, and he likes Dad. So I guess it makes sense…'_

"Sorry for being so troublesome, Nara-san," the boy apologised, a little subdued.

"You needn't be so guarded, Yasha-san. And I'm not saying this as anything but a member of Konoha," Shikaku stated firmly. "I know it's your way, and your choice, and I won't force you – but it's not necessary. Worst case, you'll drive people away with your displays of aggression. The sooner you lower your shields, the better it will be for you."

Yasha nodded shortly, accepting the advice. It was sincere, he could tell. "I'm not looking to make friends here, Shikaku-san. I might be forced out at any time."

"No," Shikaku cut him off sharply. "The Hokage signed you on to join the village; that means more than just a free pass to walk around within the village walls. It means he, and the rest of the Konoha shinobi, will protect you and look out for your wellbeing. Circumstances aside."

Yasha gazed at him with surprise as Shikaku's sudden conviction drove him to expand on his statement. "If the Hokage wants your past to remain a security risk, he'd have saved himself a heck of a lot of trouble if he didn't rush to sign you into membership of Konoha. It's a rare privilege to be accepted so quickly; there's a lot of politics and legal issues that are involved normally. It would usually take weeks or months for trust like that, at bare minimum a mind-walk from a Yamanaka. It's even more incredible that you snuck in and were still _permitted_ to be a member."

He made a good point, and Yasha thought about it for a bit. It was almost definite that the Hokage really didn't want him around, what with needing a solution to the Uchiha getting all twitchy. And Yasha's being in the village _had_ really been related to the coup… but now Yasha felt disappointed at himself that he had brought no real solution. All he'd done was waste the Hokage's time with monitoring him, which might otherwise have been spent getting rid of the upcoming coup.

Okay, it was true Zack had sent him back to help with the massacre post-humorously, so the Hokage clearly _hadn't_ worked out a solution originally… but that logic didn't completely repress his guilt. The Hokage was going on a limb to trust him, and no doubt protect him from Danzō's watch… to fully treat him like a member of Konoha with little reason to trust him, and Yasha's response was to do the bare minimum to meet his mission requirements.

Okay, Yasha was planning to rescue the kids, but condemn them to orphanage without even considering any sort of rescue for their parents? How was he going to explain that one to them later when they inevitably awoke the Sharingan? (Given there was ten targeted kids, it would be rather likely)

Maybe he could waltz into the Uchiha compound, wherever they had the coup meeting going on, and just wipe out everyone in there. Or something along those lines. Yasha felt an urge to talk to Shisui again; maybe he could take a more active role with stopping the massacre. With him being an outsider, it wouldn't be a problem to talk to Shisui nor Itachi about it. Only the highest authorities knew about it; no one would suspect an outsider had information on it. The worst they could do was attempt to kill him, but that'd raise questions for everyone.

Naruto made his way back in, fixing Yasha with a hurt look, only for the brunette to stand up and hug him, much to the blond's surprise. "Sorry, man. My bad."

"No, no… it was my fault, dattebayo," Naruto replied quickly, blushing with embarrassment as the Nara family looked on them with bemusement. He wasn't used to being hugged – much less in public in an unreserved way.

Yasha released him and held him at arm's length. "Seriously though… watch the reflexes. You have to think about what's around you."

Naruto nodded shortly, his regular grin returning full force as Yasha let him go, much to the brunette's satisfaction, but his eyes were wet. "Hold on, I left something in the…" he spun around, his voice choking as he ran back to the bathroom.

Yasha frowned; just a simple hug made Naruto cry? He was too sensitive for his own good. That child abuse had really affected him.

"Shikaku-san?" Yasha began, abandoning the topic and sitting back to finish the rest of his lunch. "The three E-Rank jutsu the Academy teaches… are there any limitations that might not be obvious?"

Shikaku graciously accepted the change of topic without comment. "Hmm. Well, Bunshin is just an illusion, a fragile chakra construct. No matter how realistic, it won't hold experienced people off for more than a couple seconds, at best. Any element that hits it, even nature, will expose it…"

"…so you can't use it during wind or rain as the construct will warp out of shape," Yasha finished with a grin. "Why is Bunshin taught if it's a human chakra system being copied?"

"As opposed to something smaller? Well, first, it's much more troublesome using chakra in smaller amounts than your whole body's size. Chakra control focuses on that. Since your body's chakra is used to the shape of your system, a significant expelling of the chakra will be inclined to resume that shape. Hence, Bunshin. It's also why you cannot use Bunshin after Henge; the transformed chakra system would differ from normal and confuse the released chakra, ruining the illusion's shape."

"I see," Yasha mused. "So it's actually easier to make a full copy of your chakra system than anything else?"

"As a chakra construct, yes. It's why genjutsu needs so much troublesome chakra control: released chakra, if near to the size and shape of the user's body, is naturally inclined to map itself to a normal chakra flow, and one of the sender's brain flow. Both would cancel out the genjutsu."

Yasha wondered about Kage Bunshin. "I've heard of variants of Bunshin, though…"

Shikaku was mildly surprised, but elemental clones were commonly heard of. "Yes, with sufficient control over an element, you can make a more durable clone out of it, although unless you put a lot of control into the technique, a lot of intelligence and combat ability would be lost. People normally don't bother improving their intelligence past a certain balance – between losing 50% of your chakra making a 30% of your potential in a clone, you normally wouldn't bother. It takes a high level of skill to use elemental chakra, even your own affinity, so much of the effort of converting is lost.

"You have to figure out the ratio for yourself; some people can make 10% -ability clones with 5% of their chakra and so can release multiple clones easily. Plus, if the element is plentiful in the environment, it uses even less chakra to draw it together – and even further less if a clone was destroyed and shortly after, a clone technique was used. The chakra of the user remains within the destroyed elements for a good while; the quicker you recreate the clone, the less effort it takes."

Yasha nodded, drinking it all in. There was plenty of logic here, but being given facts rather than hypothesising was much less effort. He was going to milk this information source for all it was worth. "And what about weakness of an elemental clone? Will water attacks work better against water clones, or worse?"

"Worse, although not a lot. All you have to do is disturb the construct enough for it to fall apart; a decent wave technique would suffice. Obviously, fail to make a big enough one and the clone could attack you right back with minimal effort as you've just thrown the element he wields towards him."

"And what about the elemental clone's techniques? Are they limited to their element?"

Shikaku was barely finding time to eat his food. "Yes, they can't use anything bar their element, or generic techniques that won't affect their chakra shape. It's not _impossible_ to use a different element, but it would cause such a drain on their resources to doubly-convert the elemental chakra (from water to base to earth or what have you), so most clones would fall apart before they pulled it off. So it's normal to learn solely the elemental clone you have an affinity to, and only develop your control over the technique until you meet that balance."

"And how does remote dispelling work for elemental clones?"

"Retaining the clone requires no effort. Dispelling it, being that it's your chakra that's in them, just involves making that chakra pulse outwards until its shape is destroyed. It's a technique many people can use, such as with remotely-activated explosive notes. The clones can also dispel each other for the same reason – even clones of another element, theoretically."

Naruto wandered back in and took his seat. Everyone pretended not to notice the reddened eyes, bar Yasha, who just put his arm over his shoulders and patted his furthest arm, muttering, "You alright there?"

"Yeah. Just got something in my eye," Naruto mumbled, averting his gaze in a rather painfully obvious indication he was lying.

Yasha let it go, and turned back to his host. "So how does one improve on remote control of their chakra?"

"Such as changing a genjutsu already on someone?" Shikaku deciphered. "That's much more troublesome than just dispelling a clone or triggering a note. The accuracy of your control you would need would be impeccable.

"If you create a clone, it will obey the simple instructions you were thinking of when you created it. Instructions too advanced will confuse it, and it'd be a waste of chakra. If you wanted to manipulate it, to change its commands, it would be similar to puppetry, but genjutsu puppetry – a high A-class technique if mastered, but most elemental clones only reach low B class in combat effectiveness, making learning that mostly pointless.

"Changing a genjutsu remotely is almost the same level of difficulty, so I wouldn't expect to be able to do that. It would be far less troublesome if you make physical contact with the target; that way there's no natural chakra to knock it off course."

Yasha nodded, finishing off the last of his food as he mulled over what he had learned.

"I've never heard you speak so much before," Yoshino interjected with surprise.

Shikaku conceded the point… Shikamaru looked a little betrayed, much to his father's bemusement.

"Shikamaru doesn't tend to be as motivated," his father goaded casually and without a trace of guilt, "so I rarely have many questions to answer."

Yasha raised his eyebrows at Shikamaru. He was ignoring a resource like that? "Why the heck not?!"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "It's troublesome."

Yasha gazed at him with such extreme disbelief Shikamaru started to look uncomfortable. Several long seconds passed while Naruto looked between the two curiously. Shikaku nonchalantly carried on eating while Yoshino fixed her son with a 'I told you so' look.

"Whatever," Yasha concluded, waving his hand dismissively. "You're the type who's not motivated by opportunity, but by desperation."

He turned his look to Shikaku, who didn't visually react to the comment, picking at his food like he suddenly lost his appetite. The silence stretched out awkwardly.

"You're quite correct, Yasha."

Shikamaru looked at his father with shock, not expecting him to accept the insult, much less _agree_ with him. Shikaku fixed his son with a stern gaze, before turning to Yasha and continuing, "It's how I originally was motivated, and how I got these two scars…" he gestured at the two long scars on his face morbidly. "I couldn't protect my teammates and it caused the death of my sensei. Knowing that, experiencing the desperation, motivated me."

No one knew what to say after that sobering statement, and Yasha was quite glad he finished his food and could step out of the room quickly. He knew Shikamaru would need time to think over what was said before he was no longer defensive.

Hopefully he could befriend him. For all Shikamaru's laziness, he was both smart and a Nara; both something Yasha needed.

Yasha made his goodbyes, Naruto hastily finished his lunch and they both collected their things and left. Yasha was somewhat disappointed he couldn't test his genjutsu some more, but with a bombshell like that… best to steer clear until the dust settled.

_'I need to learn to keep my opinions to myself. Insulting Shikamaru, even if his dad agrees and it's complete truth, is not helping my case to learn Nara shadow manipulation,'_ Yasha thought unhappily.

"Naruto, go ahead to the monument. I'm going to go visit someone for a private conversation."

Naruto was perturbed by the sudden decision. "Uh, okay, sure. What should I do while I'm there?"

"Count down from a hundred thousand?" Yasha offered. "I should be back by then."

Naruto fixed him with a disbelieving stare as they meandered through the Nara compound.

"Work out what you wanna do." Yasha sighed and thought about it for a bit. "Practice the syllabaries a couple of times, make sure you know all the hand signs. And after that, work on chakra hand seals, make sure you can do them quickly."

Naruto nodded dutifully and scampered off. Yasha turned and stared in the direction of the Uchiha compound. _'Now to find Shisui…'_

* * *

As soon as he saw the Uchiha clan head house, he saw Itachi striding inside with Sasuke. Itachi was in jounin attire; a Konoha flak jacket, dark blue pants, a long-sleeve shirt, and gloves with metal plates on the backhand. Oddly, both were carrying carrier bags. _'Shopping again? I swear they just don't know how to stock up. I wonder who keeps sending him out. Is it a publicity thing?'_

"Itachi-san!" Yasha called, picking up the pace.

Itachi turned, and his gaze narrowed.

_'Suspicion, hardly surprising,'_ Yasha thought as the two siblings turned to him. "Do you know where Shisui is?"

Itachi shook his head, shortly. "I'm afraid not. What do you want to see him for?"

"Hey, Yasha," Sasuke interjected, a bit perturbed he was being ignored.

Yasha nodded at him. "Heyo, Sasuke-san." He turned straight back to Itachi. "I've got an invitation for him… I guess for you as well, Itachi-san. But I'll need to see both of you at once."

"That may be difficult. I haven't seen him for years," Itachi lied smoothly.

Yasha frowned, realising their meetings over the coup was the only interaction the two anti-coup Uchiha had – Shisui was meant to watch Itachi on behalf of the Uchiha. It was obviously hidden.

"Fine, just you on your own, then, privately."

"Otōto, you go on inside. I will talk with Yasha alone."

"…hai," Sasuke said, looking completely confused and a bit betrayed. Itachi unhurriedly went to deposit the bags in the house while Yasha waited patiently. When he emerged, Yasha gestured away, before they walked off slowly.

"What is the invitation, Yasha? And what did you say to Shisui-san?"

"Uh…" Yasha felt somewhat subdued under the stress-enhanced frown of the prodigy. He fumbled for words for a while, glancing around. "Is there no ANBU or anything around?"

Itachi looked briefly surprised, but humoured him and activated his Sharingan, scanning the area with a practised efficiency. "ANBU?" he repeated, "No, just civilians."

"Great. Itachi-san, can I have your autograph?"

Itachi raised his eyebrows. "An autograph? …And why are you worried about the ANBU seeing that?"

"It's secondary. But if you would…" Yasha held out some paper from his pocket. "…I'll get to the real point in a bit."

Itachi was highly confused, but his curiosity for what Shisui's message said just moved him to performing the uncharacteristic action, and he scribbled his autograph quickly. "Yasha, right?"

Yasha nodded, his heart rate amplified at the sheer otherworldliness of what he was doing. An S-Rank clan destroyer giving him his autograph. "Thanks, that's awesome," he said giddily, almost rubbing his fingers over the autograph to prove it was real.

It read 'To Yasha, [blank line], from Uchiha Itachi.'

"Your real point?" Itachi asked bluntly, hadn't deactivated the Sharingan, busy attempting to read Yasha's chakra past the black moving over it. It was almost like a training exercise.

"Uh…" Yasha gazed at the signature, and cupped his mouth, letting Itachi read his lips as he mouthed, "I know why Shisui and you are meeting, that he's been tasked to follow you, and what you're leaking to the Hokage."

Itachi's back went completely rigid and his tension tripled. "Did the Hokage tell you?" he asked, his mind racing. _'It's the only possibility – unless Shisui did…'_

Yasha shook his head slightly, still mouthing. "No. Can we go somewhere more private?"

"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"

Yasha froze briefly, seeing the world warp into different colours around him. Sound faded into nothing for a few seconds… but then the entire warp reversed. Itachi blinked at him as he shook his head again and began to explain, "Genjutsu doesn't work on me. Can we just…"

Itachi grabbed him in a tight hold, lifting him off his feet rapidly. Yasha gritted his teeth as the sudden momentum of the shunshin technique made him nearly vomit.

Itachi took several body-flickers, appearing well outside Konoha. He gave Yasha some time to recover, gesturing for the Shisui dutied to tail him to come out.

They stoically awaited Yasha's recovery, staring at him with their Sharingan until he began, "You've not told Itachi, Shisui-san?"

"No," Shisui answered shortly. The contents of the message Yasha passed him hadn't been shown to anyone else. They didn't really need to be, bar Itachi, but his friend was stressed enough.

Yasha looked down at the paper in his hand then glanced back up, smiling. "Can I have your autograph as well?"

Shisui rolled his eyes, relaxing a little at the apparent lack of urgency. "You're not going to go on until I give it, are you?"

"Probably not." Yasha grinned, holding the paper towards him. Shisui added his deftly, also leaving a blank space. He wouldn't admit it, but Shisui was a bit chuffed by the unexpected recognition.

The atmosphere remained tense, with a sort of standoff going on while everyone waited for Yasha, who attempted to reduce the tension. "You two can kill me here, right? So relax a little. I know about the coup – never mind why, it's not important. I want to join you guys to prevent it."

Shisui looked at Itachi, reporting the points in clipped sentences. "He's a close friend of Naruto. We can't hurt him without attracting attention. And his bloodline makes him immune to genjutsu."

Yasha nodded, giving more information to relax them. "I can help; my bloodline lets me control chakra flow. It's essentially very small, carnivorous insect swarms. They stick to my chakra and ensure its shape – with that, I may be able to create unbreakable genjutsu, which could help with stopping the coup."

"That would be _extremely_ useful…" Itachi sighed wistfully, "…but not for an Uchiha. The Sharingan can see genjutsu exists; enforcing it with your insects won't hide its existence, much less who placed it on them. We'll see the insects."

Yasha nodded again, conceding it. "I can also release high amounts of killing intent, or kill any target instantly. I can flood an area with the insects and anyone inside will die. Can we just wipe out the people planning the coup?"

"Kill them?" Shisui looked uneasily at the other Uchiha.

Itachi rolled his eyes at the simplistic solution. "That's probably the easiest way, but no, it's unsuitable. Their families and friends will be enraged, even if they haven't been told about the coup."

"But will the families do anything?" Yasha asked, his heart slowing slightly as he realised how they were accepting him as a co-conspirator. "If they know of the plan and they're not involving themselves, they don't agree."

"Revenge and anger makes a good motivator," Itachi reasoned morbidly.

Yasha blinked, recalling Sasuke's future motivations. "So what are you two planning?"

The two gazed back at him, seemingly perplexed. Shisui responded with some confusion in his tone. "What are _you_ planning? There's no reason to be aggressive – the Sandaime Hokage will come up with a peaceful solution."

"Oh." Yasha swore mentally; he hadn't expected them to wait for the Hokage. Itachi must have done the massacre last-minute, once he knew the time would run out. A last-minute implementation left no way for Yasha to hop in to assist. Damn. "Is there even a way to defuse it?"

Itachi shrugged. "I hope so. But the Hokage is known as the Professor, he'll be able to come up with a way even if we cannot predict his idea."

_'Way, way, __**way**__ too much trust on the Hokage.'_ Yasha swore mentally again. "So what if they set a date and the Hokage hasn't thought up suitable concessions?"

"I have little doubt that he will…" Shisui muttered, scratching his head, "…but…"

"…it's good to have fall-backs," Itachi finished, turning to his best friend. "Shisui-kun, Yasha has the right idea. The issue is the _pride_ of this damn clan. Even if my father gains more resources and benefits, the pride remains just as whole. In two, five, ten years, something will happen and the pride will flare up again. We'll be at square one, just with a delay. Unless an Uchiha becomes Hokage – and that Uchiha submits to Fugaku – no progress will be made."

Shisui sighed, sitting down on the grass roughly. "We can't _purge_ pride. We can't force humility either. There's just no way. The very nature of pride is to refuse any sort of deflation."

Yasha felt oddly out of place as he sat on the ground beside his two much stronger ninja, but offered his suggestion. "If we can't force Fugaku to back off his pride, can we remove his ability to attempt a coup?"

Itachi shook his head. "No, he's got control over the entire clan's shinobi, being the clan head. Most of the shinobi are with his coup idea due to pride, the rest due to loyalty. A significant amount of the civilians will agree as well, although they won't act on it. At Fugaku's word, any shinobi will do any mission. And we just need one person to kill the Hokage… or hypnotise him."

Yasha looked surprised. "Genjutsu? Are you two any good at that?"

The two blinked at him before Yasha realised both had already placed genjutsu on him just by sight. "Sorry. I meant on a high enough level to not be noticed by the clan."

"Actually, Shisui has…" Itachi trailed off, not going to spill it, but Shisui took up the sentence.

"He knows about my Mangekyō anyway, Itachi-san," his friend explained. "I have a powerful genjutsu known as Kotoamatsukami. If I place it on someone, I can control them without them realising, by planting false memories; it's near undetectable even when questioned. That's my plan B. Unfortunately, it's a Mangekyō-only ability, and I lose my sight in that eye for several years, if not permanently. And, I'm not sure how many people I can place it on before my eye expires. I could potentially do the entire clan in one go, or only manage one person."

"Ohhh…" Yasha snapped his fingers. "So that's why Danzō…" he didn't finish as he was hit with some focused KI.

Itachi glared at him. "Danzō? What's that… _man_ going to do?"

"He has plans to steal my eyes. That was in Yasha's scroll." Shisui looked at the boy curiously, wondering where he got _that_ tip from. Danzō wasn't one to discuss his plans with anyone else. "I assume he may attempt to cure the clan himself, if he succeeds in taking one."

"That's impossible," Itachi snapped. For some reason he appeared angry at the news the council member he most disliked was planning to mutilate his closest friend. "He's no Uchiha; and we're not even sure if Mangekyō chakra can be released without those genes. But the odds of him successfully copying your most advanced genjutsu technique are miniscule, and we have only a couple of months. There's no way."

"So no point in letting him have one," Shisui said with a sigh.

"You were planning to?" Yasha frowned in surprise.

Shisui shrugged. "I was _considering_ it for a bit, but I was far more inclined to disagree. A one-eyed Uchiha is still useful as a shinobi, a completely blind one is nigh useless."

"Won't people comment on your loss of eyesight?" Yasha asked curiously.

Shisui shook his head. "No, I have no family, and I work in ANBU-"

"You're not meant to spread that information," Itachi reminded him.

"Oh, of course, the ANBU mask would cover it," Yasha realised.

Shisui nodded. "Yeah. But even if I did get noticed, I can claim using it on a mission, since all ANBU missions are top secret, no one can question it. Having one eye would be a hindrance, but possible to work around."

"This Plan B sounds good," Yasha approved. Itachi shot him a glare, quite scary with the Sharingan activated, so Yasha hastily continued. "Apart from the partial blindness. Far better than hundreds of people slaughtered, right?"

Itachi conceded that point with a nod. "However, the problem remains. Most of the clan is too proud for their own good. If Fugaku backs down, it's likely someone else will take up the mantle behind his back. They may even kill him to make sure he doesn't interfere."

"That's… not ideal," Yasha groaned, hands on his face.

"The murder of my father is not ideal, no," Itachi said dryly.

Yasha tried another tact. "Can we reveal the plan? Have the Hokage turn up to their meeting?"

Itachi should his head. "No, it's an Uchiha secret meeting place. The fact someone within the Uchiha betrayed them would be obvious. And I'll be suspected immediately. That asides, there's no real proof; there's no written documentation anywhere, and the meeting place is one of the most secure areas against recording devices in the village…

"The problem is the relationship with the village aggravating the pride; their capturing would just sour that aggravation beyond degree. A second attempt, one I'm excluded from hearing about, will definitely take place."

Shisui looked serious. "Plus, Danzō won't lose the opportunity to take Sharingan eyes. Some people who 'fought back' or 'escaped' and are never heard of again. We don't want that to happen."

Yasha nodded. It sounded like something Danzō might do. "So, Plan C. We'll have to somehow subdue them, with force. Both Plan A, the Hokage working it out, and Plan B, Shisui's eye, are passive and half-aggressive, respectively. The remaining options are just aggressive."

_'This boy is __**really**__ keen on a violent solution. Odd, isn't this plan against the coup and its murders? Maybe the aggression is a side-effect of the carnivorous intent in his system…'_ Itachi mused, finally saying, "That's a good point, but there can be several plans for any level of aggression. At any rate, we can't kill them, their families will lose it. Plus, both of us involved as supposed to be part of the coup, our survival would make us obvious; and the Uchiha name would be crippled beyond repair."

"The torment of their loved ones being dead may even bring out Mangekyō," Yasha offered.

Itachi shrugged. "Unlikely, but maybe. Most Uchiha civilians haven't even awoken Sharingan at all."

"There's a bigger problem," Shisui interjected. "All of the Police Force is made up of Uchiha shinobi. Thus, the entirety of the law-keeping force would be imprisoned for treason. How are the civilians going to react to _that_?"

Itachi sighed, instantly catching on. "The entire Uchiha clan will be ostracized from the rest of the village with _far_ more hostility if a coup is revealed. The problem gets far worse – every criminal and ex will point out the police force was corrupt; the legal system would fall apart."

"This is more political than I hoped for," Yasha moaned into his palms.

The two jounin shared unimpressed looks at Yasha's self-pity over his head, and Itachi asked the obvious question. "Yasha, why _did_ you get involved?"

Yasha reiterated the false backstory he had been spreading. "I have a sponsor, someone who funded me to bring messages into Konoha. He gave me details on my bloodline, cash to settle, and said there were clans here that could help me expand it. He knew about you Uchiha getting all egotistical, and here I am."

The two shared another look. Yasha went on quickly. "Oh, and since you'll ask: no, I have no way of contacting him besides hoping I accidentally meet one of his spies. I can't describe or identify him to you; I have a seal on my mind to prevent it, it causes pain and confusion if I try to breach it."

Shisui hummed. "Good cover story."

"Thanks," Yasha answered before catching himself and hurriedly adding, "…but it's the truth."

"If genjutsu doesn't work on you, how did you get a genjutsu seal?" Itachi asked with eyes narrowed.

Yasha shrugged, not letting himself feel trapped. "I have no idea. He knew more about my bloodline than I did, he must have had a workaround. I don't remember the seal, but he gave me instructions after he applied it. One of those was I wasn't going to make contact with him; he'll contact me if he wanted."

Shisui inspected his expression carefully. "Is there no way for you to get him to take a more active role here?"

"No, not without deliberately attracting attention. I can't contact him, even in an emergency; the only way I could is his spy network, which the Hokage believes is rather advanced."

Itachi gazed at him flatly. "Well yes; this information is limited to the advisor council, which has three people; and of course the Hokage knows too. So there are only three sources, unless he found someone with a bloodline that lets them listen in."

"Maybe?" Yasha said uncertainly, knowing the sponsor was just a time-traveller that he wouldn't even have a chance of meeting until few months from now, if ever. "But at any rate, there's no contact. I was to just give Shisui the minimal advice – a warning about Danzō – and that was my _official_ role ended. But I figured, leaving hundreds to die would be a bit… impolite."

_'Impolite?'_ Itachi couldn't work out if the boy was taking this seriously. "So how did you plan to help?"

Yasha listed things that seemed useful. "My bloodline is unique. I'm the same age as Sasuke. I look like an Uchiha. I can kill a roomful of people with ease. My genjutsu is probably unbreakable. These are all good things about me."

Itachi glanced at him, sizing him up. "Your chakra levels are small. I can feel slight levels of danger leaking from you, probably from the insects in your eyes. Your chakra control is poor, judging from the way you handled the shunshin. The only benefit you hold is the fact no one suspects you. The bloodline will be useless, if you kill anyone by releasing insects that broadcast your presence with killer intent. Did you know your nickname is 'KI alarm clock'?"

"I wondered if that was him!" Shisui exclaimed enthusiastically, inspecting Yasha with a new respect.

"_'KI alarm clock'?_" Yasha repeated in bewilderment. "What a weird nickname."

Itachi raised his eyebrows. "You wake up most of the town when you use your bloodline, and you did it two nights running. People took notice."

"Even the civilians?" Yasha asked in surprise.

"Yes."

"Huh…" was Yasha's articulate response. "I knew I released killing intent… but that kind of radius is pretty extreme."

Itachi nodded and moved on quickly. "So, Yasha. Three heads make better than one, or two… but there's no more plans possible. The Hokage will use diplomacy, Plan A. Failing that, Shisui will use his eye, Plan B. Failing that… we will have at least gained time from Fugaku's change of heart from Plan B. We'll consider a Plan C only when we must."

Yasha nodded. "I guess. At the moment I'm not suspect, like you said. And if I become a witness to the coup attempt, officially, things will get messy; I can't be killed because I'm close to Naruto. The Hokage would be on it like a shot. Plus my death leads to the death of anyone around me – that'll make a trail someone with a head cold could follow. No genjutsu will work, so basically any Uchiha would be just screwed as soon as they figure out I'm onto them."

"Best not to get noticed," Itachi said dryly. "At any rate… we shall reconvene at a separate time."

"Right. Sorry I couldn't help more." Yasha sighed, disappointed at himself.

Shisui hummed appreciatively. "It was noble of you to offer, though. Your message said you were just a messenger."

"Yeah. I know what the message says, but half of it I don't fully understand. I did know about this coup, so…"

"It's appreciated." Itachi gave him an approving nod. "In fact…"

He swiped the autographed paper back out of Yasha's hand. Yasha blinked at his empty hand. Itachi scribbled for a bit, and then passed it to Shisui, who smiled and scribbled as well.

Yasha took it back, before Itachi grabbed him and his stomach lurched again. He recovered slowly from the middle of Konoha where he'd been placed on his own, feeling highly nauseous. Body flickers were just very fast running, at such a speed the body couldn't physically focus on where it was going. It was rarely used in combat for that reason. Itachi was a total ass for using it on him.

He regained control of his whirling stomach and began to make his way to home. He wanted to chuck the paper somewhere safe. _'Come to think of it, what did they add?'_

He lifted it up to his face and re-read it smiling, a tear swelling in the corner of his eye. He let it roll down, knowing in the future, one of these men was dead and the other expelled in disgrace. They deserved one tear at least.

_'But just __**one**__ tear. Typical that it's raining.'_ He glared at the cloudless sky vehemently and wandered onwards towards his home. _'Stupid weather making me look like a cry-baby.'_

* * *

**AN:** This chapter has a good 14k words. Did you know Macbeth is only 89k words? My fanfic is longer than damn Macbeth. Why aren't they studying it in schools?

Oh yeah, because Shakespeare is old and meant to be genius. Then again, back in the Middle Ages, anyone who could write was a genius. :P

Next chapter involves more Uchiha rescue planning, and Yasha's motto. Also, the secret to being manipulative. After that, a timeskip…  
…unless you guys really want me to throw out a couple of days of Naruto and Yasha being best buddies and what their regular days are like. I don't mind, I'm just saying: the fic's gotten to 109k words (including the next chapter), and I haven't even reached the Uchiha massacre within all that.

I mean… wow. Weird how this story can be slow and yet remain intense, huh? Longer than Macbeth and we're not done character development on the first character. You didn't even notice that, I bet.

Give me a review, on whether you want yay or nay to Naruto/Yasha 'regular days' part. And if the pace of the story surprised you. It certainly did me.

PS: The Uchiha massacre is roughly three months away from the end of this chapter. After all, people have a lot of time to be suspicious and plot, and there's a lot of people to do it.  
So day-by-day would be super, super-epic in length. I could make it intriguing and tense, fairly easily, but the fanfic will reach 20 million words before we hit the Chuunin exams with that sort of pace. Do you fear this length?


	19. Appreciation of skill

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 19: Appreciation of skill**_

* * *

**AN:** Hey, folks. Skipped updating last week's Sunday, didn't have the content. And this chapter's 15k words! Couldn't find a good point where it felt right to leave it. And the current part is a bit of a make-do. A quick summary of the story thus far:

Massacre ETA is in three months, but Hokage/Shikaku think Yasha thinks it's in a week. It's not, he just gave off the wrong impression, mostly by accident.  
Yasha's got an autograph and personal message from Shisui and Itachi.

The ANBU tail has been removed from Yasha, but from Shikaku's interrogation, the Nara worked out Yasha is hiding scrolls. So, they're going to search his person and his home under added cover of knockout gas for said scrolls. If they read the contents of the instruction scroll, Yasha's being from the future is exposed!

Now, lemme just say, whoever wrote the review that said they found my writing 'orgasmic' – this isn't a lemon, fool. I just know how to write professionally. It's simple: learn grammar, keep cliffhangers and subplots around to retain interest between chapters, and don't abandon the story. Also, don't reuse a word too often; that's why I don't tend to repeat someone's name in a conversation, I use unique but obvious distinguishers, such as hair colour, tailed-beast-containing status, etc.

As a side note, using sexual-related adjectives in non-sexual contexts shows a lack of originality. I appreciate it might be a compliment, but it's not a good mental image. Personally, the biggest relationship emphasised here is two preteen boys; if you find that thing orgasmic, you'd probably be arrested. Plus, they're not homosexual, so calm your tits.

Would I find it more of a compliment if you put thought into your expression of gratitude rather than expelling the first adjective that hits your brain? Hmm, something to mull over.

_*cough*_ But anyway, no traces of Danzō nor Root, none of Orochimaru either… no _visible_ ones anyway. Kukukuku, is something moving in the shadows?

* * *

Arriving home, Yasha unlocked the door and stepped inside.

He hesitated briefly. Something was off. His house felt just a _bit_ different. Something in the air. He considered then just as quickly dismissed genjutsu. He was immune.

Everything, down to what he remembered of the smell, was fine. Nothing had moved an inch. _'My imagination? I doubt it. But if nothing has changed, why am I feeling like this?'_

The brunette prodigy checked each room carefully, paying particular attention to the bedroom. Even the glass was as he remembered it.

Shrugging, he went to his dresser, pulling the bottom drawer out to its limits, and then awkwardly reaching past the back of the drawer to place the autographed paper in the utter bottom of the cabinet.

He closed the bottom drawer, noting approvingly there was no sound of scraping paper as it slid over the sheet. The runners it was on weren't low enough. Hidden, but easily accessible.

He stood, staring down at the cabinet with a kind of shocked glee at the audacity of what he had just got away with, then punched the air. "YES!"

* * *

Naruto was studying the hand signs some more when his thoughts drifted to wondering why Yasha did so much for him.

Yasha stood up for him, even against _Iruka_, bought food and made him lunches… and just this morning Naruto had been reminded he had no real right to be in his friend's house. It was a privilege that the brunette had offered to him.

And Yasha was incredible. He could cook, he could run faster and fight quicker than Naruto could, he was so intelligent he could stun even Shikamaru and Iruka with what he said, he had the guts to get angry against the one person Naruto would never dream of… the girls in the class all liked him as much as Sasuke-teme, he was rich, he changed his words in brilliant ways to hide Naruto's own shortcomings… and he never once complained about Naruto's intelligence, or complained that he had to put himself out to help the blond.

It was always compliment after compliment; he hit him only twice outside a spar, and both times he had apologised, _properly_ apologised.

It was so weird… when Naruto had unthinkingly screamed right in his ear and was hit in the face like every carer had done… Naruto was so sure Yasha was realising how worthless he was, like the orphanage carers had. He had spent extra time in the bathroom trying to harden himself against that horrid thought, shoving back down the tears like he had to normally.

But a few minutes later Yasha had _hugged_ him, in front of the whole Nara family, like Naruto was some sort of normal friend, not some sort of demon, even though Naruto had done barely anything to earn his friendship. It was so different to what he had thought Yasha would do he had frozen up, then had to run back in the bathroom to cover up the tears that had started again for no reason.

And Yasha's sense of humour was brilliant too. Naruto giggled despite himself as he remembered the silly manipulation song Yasha had sung earlier while washing the dishes.

_'Why is someone who has money, skills, girls after him, and can manipulate anyone… helping __**me? **__He's not even trying to manipulate me – he wouldn't tell me about his manipulation ability if he wanted to do that. He's just giving me things like a normal friend would.'_

No, not just that. When Naruto had fixed his eyes away from the villagers' cold ones on the way to the hospital, he had said, 'If you keep staring at the street like some sort of underdog, I'm not walking with you.'

And he _meant_ it. He wanted Naruto to be strong and confident. Like Naruto was some aspect of his life that he couldn't leave alone. Like Naruto deserved it.

Naruto didn't, though. He knew that. He deserved every beating the carers had given him. So many people had called him a demon he had come to accept it.

But Yasha hadn't.

So many people had hit him, and refused to sell him things.

But Yasha hadn't.

So many villagers glared at him with those horrid eyes, scowling and wishing him away.

But Yasha hadn't.

So many gave him the worst food they had in stock. Yasha gave him the same as what he ate.

The worst furniture, but Yasha shared his unbelievably-soft bed with him. His orphanage bed was hard and lumpy and smelled like dogs had been too close it.

They had thrown him on the street, and Yasha took him in without even considering no as an answer – even called him an ass for saying he didn't deserve to be there.

They barely taught him anything, as if he was stupid – well, he couldn't even _read_ – but Yasha had put his _own_ _ninja career _on the line, just because he trusted that Naruto could learn well enough. And he had only known Naruto for a couple of days!

Naruto was fairly certain the brunette would have gone totally nuts on the carers if he had mentioned the orphanage had kicked him out. Yasha was _really_ scary when he got angry – even more than Jiji ever was. The entire office had gone dark like the sun had set in mere seconds.

The shredded wood chip pile now just behind Naruto (which he had idly poked through when he got here), had made him very glad Yasha hadn't told the insects to attack inside the office earlier – Jiji might have died. The old man didn't look like he was defending himself, and having seen the wood pile before, Naruto had been really scared for him when Yasha got that angry.

And the horrible sensation Naruto felt when Yasha had gone limp on the monument just yesterday night and he had to carry his friend to his home… His arms had started aching, and his right hand especially from the grip, but his friend hadn't responded to any attempt to wake him up. It was so scary. Yasha had felt so cold when he put him in his soft bed. He was so warm and caring normally… well, one side of him was. He had seen the other side in the Hokage office – cold and brutal about people being mistreated. The people he cared about.

He was so happy Yasha was still alive when he had woken back up the day after. The night had been the most terrifying night of his life. Even the visits on October 10th hadn't been as scary. Pain, there was a lot of pain. Those nights had the worst pain… but yesterday, he would have stepped right back into an October 10th to keep Yasha safe yesterday.

Naruto was surprised Yasha hadn't noticed the demon was staring at him most of the time during breakfast. But Yasha had been too tired. If Hinata hadn't come over, he probably would have noticed.

What horrified him was the fact that those insects were still inside his friend… just waiting for their chance to hurt him again. _'No… Yasha did say the ones inside him kept him alive. It was the outside ones that hurt him… but they were so stupid! Attacking their owner so easily!' _Naruto scowled down at the book. _'I wish bloodlines were just __**gone**__. They're horrible. Is that the red-eye thing those two Uchiha adults had? A bloodline? I don't like it.'_

It was torture to know his friend was in such danger… and Yasha couldn't even protect himself from his own insects! Naruto's black look deepened in thought.

Yasha wasn't liked by the villagers either. It was lesser than the way they glared at Naruto himself, but still very much there – they looked at his friend with mistrust, suspicion, tutting, haughty evading or stabbing looks…

He said his bloodline was 'Death Release'. And he _felt_ scary – Naruto would like to have said he had gotten used to it, but Yasha still felt scary even when he was just happily walking down the street cracking jokes about something in the sun. It became a background feeling, though. Like having a shuriken spinning over your head constantly, one you couldn't get rid of, you'd eventually ignore it.

_'The scariness makes people hate Yasha. I can pick up on that, so I understand that. But why do they hate me? How do they know I'm a demon?'_

Naruto knew he wasn't scary. He wore bright orange clothes and went around with a smile, just so no one would think he was anything bad. He'd done that as long as he could remember… but they still had the same looks. They still called him names, they still glared. He was still a demon to them.

Eventually he realised he had started wearing it not to chip away at the idea he was evil, but just to cheer the people around up. People couldn't glare with hatred like that unless there was sadness behind it. The world seemed a bit gloomy and hostile to them, so he stood out as much as possible. Just like the Hokages did on the cliff face – an example of heroes he could look up to every day.

But people didn't like having him trying to make them happy… and now that he thought about it, Yasha was the same. He had a habit, almost _enjoyed_, seeing the world in a depressing way. He even got angry with heroes like Jiji, just as easily as the villagers got angry with Naruto.

Naruto admitted he was a bit perturbed by the fact Yasha's personality was just like one of the villagers who didn't like him. He had the same ability to glare anger without words (but it was twenty times worse with him). Yasha got angry, he didn't like the world, didn't like too much bright things, and he was scary, just like the villagers…

How could he be had he been so similar to the villagers, and yet be the best friend Naruto could ever have? Yasha never insulted him seriously, always apologised when he hurt him, was keen on getting stronger, helped Naruto learn without getting angry at him for being slow, he had all the things older people had, and could speak like one of the adults easily. He could even buy a house and furniture without looking nervous, and only grown-ups bought that stuff!

And he had never once called Naruto 'demon' or 'that thing' or 'that boy', and all those horrible unsaid names. And Yasha probably would _grin_ at being called a demon! He'd take it as some sort of compliment. It was truly bizarre. Naruto had no clue what to make of it. If Yasha would just started liking Konoha, and started getting along with Jiji better… things would be perfect.

Now how could he make that happen…?

* * *

Yasha's smile fell as he stepped outside the apartment. Several citizens were gathered on the ground below, and they didn't look like they were there to sight-see. A couple glared at him.

_'Great… just the time to get rid of my ANBU tail… have this lot been inside the house? Planting bombs maybe? No, there was no trace of anything changed.'_

He had already checked for changes due to the instinctual feeling he got on entry, but now he felt like checking again. _'I can't risk Naruto… no, I can't risk __**myself**__._ _Get your priorities straight, man.'_

He nonchalantly wandered down the wooden steps, walking away and hiding behind a corner. About twenty seconds later, he peered around. The group hadn't moved from their spot, speaking in hushed tones which he couldn't make out.

With a sigh, he slid down the wall. He could always ignore it, go away and come back, then look for changes – but they could destroy his house, which was only slightly better than trapping it. Either way, he would suffer enough loss of money that it would be rather nasty to endure. Explosive notes were very easy to detonate remotely – hell, he had managed to do two on the way into Konohagakure, and he was pre-genin. Heck, pre-pre-genin, not even an Academy student then.

Thinking about it, what was he going to do?

No… what were _they_ going to do? Where Yasha was now, around the corner, there was no aggressive-looking citizens. He hurriedly made a few hand seals, firing the technique and turning back around the corner rapidly.

It was straining to retain the mental connection around a corner. He hadn't expected that, he supposed he should've – it was like scrunching up your facial muscles, except… inside your head.

Then the first thought hit him. _'The demon fox that killed my wife Kazumi-chan… and that bastard protecting him… this is where they live.'_

Yasha frowned, carefully not transmitting any thoughts. He had performed the strong mental connection, so his entire consciousness had moved – if someone hit his real body he wouldn't even notice now the transmission was complete. It was now slumped around the corner, the brief half-second window of movement allowing him to get out of sight.

Then, he got the solution. Perfect.

_'Isn't the demon fox a Bijū, a weapon for Konoha?'_ he thought-transmitted, his voice echoing in the target's head. _'Surely ANBU will be protecting him.'_

_'Oh shit…'_ the target thought, and Yasha disconnected smugly. Within a minute, the group was starting to disband, avoiding the possible ANBU team around the house.

Yasha was still smirking as he got to the Hokage monument. If only all problems could be solved that quickly. Just pretend someone strong was going to fight, and people legged it.

Maybe, once he mastered genjutsu, he could cloak himself… as the Yondaime Hokage?

Or Uchiha Madara?

Hmm… that was probably illegal. And best he didn't ask about whether he could either, it'd give it away who was responsible if he ever _did_ do it.

Madara was the most powerful person the world had seen, on par with the Shodai Hokage, although both probably pretty shy of the Rikudō Sennin. But the difference between those two, Madara was evil and _scary_. If Madara walked around bleeding KI levels off the scale, no one would think it was odd.

On the other hand, Yondaime – mildly powerful (as in, not a chakra powerhouse like Shodai), determined, but no real history details about his KI. Probably decent, but it wouldn't leak, not within Konoha. So…

_'Madara it is. What did he look like again?'_

Hmm… best details would be in the Uchiha Library, Yasha had seen that on his wander. Best to try general library first, though.

Imagine that… if Naruto summoned him, he could Henge into Madara before it took effect…

Now _that_ would give a new meaning to the kanji for 'Darkness' scribbled on the summoning scroll's label. He snickered, diverting to the general library. A quick browse through the history section was in order.

Wandering down the four-metre-high bookcases, he wondered how there was so much detail about history when it had only been around a couple of hundred years.

Aha, 'The Valley of the End'. Subtitle, 'The Greatest Battle in History of the Elemental Nations'. Whoever wrote about the Shodai was clearly a fan.

He flipped through it, _'Where are the pictures, pictures… __**there**__, Madara.'_ He had a headshot!

_'Man, long hair on this dude. That expression though… __**dark**__. Weird, this guy founded a village then turned against it a few decades later? Had he gone senile?'_

Moving on, he found a full-body picture, apparently one of three within the book. Memorising every detail, he grinned as he imagine the Henge in advance. He'd need practice, but his Henge, mostly Yin-based, was nearly expert. He wasn't sure about the red armour. It seemed vaguely pointless.

Maybe he could dress up like Madara had, in real life. It would scare the life out of anyone that a mini-Madara was around. Of course, that would be irritating if someone overpowered him, the illusion of strength would become a child's game, something he really didn't like the idea of.

He replaced the book once confirming it had little more to offer him on Madara. Apparently the Uchiha was incredibly fast, just like the First, but no details on anything besides appearance and use of the Kyuubi to fight…

He paused as the two thoughts collided. _'A Henge to make me fast? Hold on. A Henge changes all physical properties… including weight…'_

The brunette made the seal and quickly Henge'd into himself, twisting his weight property by removing everything inside the chest and stomach, bar the outer skin shell. _'Just let the subconscious handle the use of the organs that no longer exist… Kami, that's kinda gross… where __**did**__ those organs go and why can I just waltz around without them?'_

He stepped out the Library, noticing everyone giving him odd looks. He carefully checked himself, but he looked normal on the outside, although he could bend over a bit too easily. No stomach muscles, after all.

Must be that KI being released from his Henge due to the chakra usage exciting the darkness…

_'Now, the shell will be fragile… I'm probably going snap in half if I get hit around the hollow areas… but for a temporary speed boost…'_

He gazed forward at the monument in the distance, setting his target, and broke into a run. Almost immediately he had to stop. The weight distribution was so bizarrely off-kilter, he had completely misstepped, and nearly folded in half immediately from the lack of weight inside his abdomen.

He shrugged and started to run, slowly, adjusting his legs' momentum and weight balancing, speeding up gradually until he was at full pelt. In ten seconds he was about six hundred metres away – the people had been a blur he could avoid, albeit with a lot of focus.

He grinned sadistically. This was fun. Draining, though. He ran the rest of the distance to the monument, making a note to measure it properly later. He estimated his speed was at least double his normal, and he got less out of breath, albeit only mildly less – constant Henge maintenance whilst moving didn't take a lot of focus, but it was taxing on his reserves.

_'Ha. Wait until the next race, Naruto.'_

* * *

"Yo, Naruto. How goes it?"

Naruto grinned at him. "Nearly all done, I think. I should have it done by supper-time."

"Ramen-time," Yasha corrected him, smiling warmly. "I knew you could do it."

Naruto grinned wholeheartedly back, then dropped his head and resumed his frown. No one had ever believed in him that much. Maybe Jiji… he had supported him, but never did anything more than vocal support. Yasha had all but bet his entire graduation on Naruto's ability to learn.

He couldn't let his friend down. _'The ramen is just an extra… a delicious extra,'_ he thought as a betraying line of dribble edged its way down.

Yasha frowned as well. Naruto was progressing at a decent rate, no qualms there. The question was Yasha himself. He had a couple of months until the coup hit. And maybe less time, if Shisui didn't die. All the resets, he had. It had caused turmoil in the Uchiha ranks, and probably gave Itachi the Mangekyō, but ultimately had only delayed things a bit.

The days felt too short already. He had to try his absolute hardest to get genjutsu down. Sure, he didn't have to save the Uchiha younglings… but he'll be damned if he missed the opportunity for a chibi Sharingan-wielding army.

Which left another question: He needed something permanent, some sort of seal or form of communication, to mask the chibi Sharingan upon awakening, and/or notify Yasha himself when they did awaken. He had potentially years to prepare it, though, since he was only planning to rescue those young enough to forget their original families. A cold thought, but the alternative was some revenge-bent, emotion-driven idiots, and that would be totally pointless.

He would divulge eventually, though. Once any of them awakened the Sharingan and realised their ancestry, they would feel inclined to get revenge – but the fact they couldn't relate to anyone who died would put out most of the fire, and having no Uchiha pride taught to them, they wouldn't have the arrogance problem either. It would be a bad idea to divulge it _after_ the Sharingan awoke, if they didn't have a concealing seal, as he'd lose credibility with the kids.

He planned to visit them often after he had chucked them in the orphanage. It was only fair, and he could only apply the seals or genjutsu, or have a good relationship, if his visits weren't deemed suspicious.

However… he needed absolutely no one to know about them before he put them in there. Not even Naruto. The Third had indicated he knew what Yasha had planned, he couldn't release any sort of indication of where they were.

To hide them pre-orphanage, he needed a place to rent… preferably soon. The rent could be dirt cheap, and the house naff, but he needed it on the outskirts of the village. It couldn't be further, the barrier would be set off; closer and any babies would have to be unceremoniously gagged, although Yasha considered doing that anyway, to avoid the risk.

Although the village barrier might be left unattended during the mass chaos in the Uchiha compound, that seemed unlikely – if Itachi had managed to wipe the entire place out, he must have done it completely without the village noticing. ANBU were black ops, the whole unit designed to be completely stealthy, but _man_, just one ANBU-level could pull it off wiping out a whole load of jounin?

And back to the problem of hiding them. Yasha had concluded the Third Hokage knew he was going to save kids from the coup – but that was if the coup was going to go ahead, and it wasn't necessarily Uchiha kids he was going to save. Only Yasha knew only the murders weren't caused by the coup attempt itself, but by Itachi removing an entire side.

He had three options to hide the kids from the Hokage, now that the Hokage knew:

First, bluff and say he didn't save anyone, from just having wimped out; second, have Itachi knock him out and Yasha claim he couldn't save anyone; or third, kidnap some villagers near the Uchiha compound and sheepishly return them later, acting like he'd never predicted Itachi's rampage, just the Uchiha coup, and so thought to protect just the villagers' kids.

So, the first, a bluff, was a bad idea. He had some pride himself… wimping out was not a trait he wanted to pretend he had. He wanted to be the Someone Sipping Tea with the Flee On Sight order. The Hokage would be completely disturbed by Yasha deliberately involving himself with a volatile scenario and then doing nothing later – it would be too bizarre.

Second one, having Itachi knock him out, seemed like a good idea. Itachi wouldn't kill him because he wasn't an Uchiha, and was clearly against the coup.

Third one, kidnap kids and return them later, had its benefits. It would make the Hokage underestimate the 'sponsor' and his spy network, by having Yasha misinformed. But, his relationship with the villagers wasn't going to be helped by stealing their kids on the night over a hundred people die and causing panic. In addition, it would mean he had to get close to both the Uchiha's _and_ the villagers' pregnant people, babysitting for both throughout the entire couple of months. That would be exhausting and time-consuming, and after the massacre, there would still be people who expected him to babysit for them, an obligation he didn't want to retain.

Back to the second idea, Yasha could mention to Itachi a few days prior to the coup that his being knocked out was part of a plan… say that the Hokage knew he knew about the coup, and pretend to Itachi that he had no intention of actually interfering. Itachi would agree to knock him out, and that would be it.

Plan then: rescue the kids, go back to the compound, get in Itachi's way, and enjoy being knocked out.

Naruto would panic about his friend's hospitalisation… and if Itachi hit him too hard, knocked him out for too long, the Uchiha brats could suffer malnutrition and die… and it _was_ vaguely possible Itachi would kill Yasha anyway… but it was the best plan. Nothing backs up an 'I failed' statement like being knocked out near your objective point.

The Third would buy it, leaving Yasha to his own devices, as a trustworthy person who had failed in his attempt to help Konoha. That would make Yasha's care of the saved kids completely unobserved.

Well, except for Naruto. Naruto would notice his absence.

He'd have to handle Naruto some way or another – probably some big deep friends-trust-each-other promise. Hopefully the babies wouldn't require the _entire_ day's care; he could just throw Naruto some instructions, leave for the babies, come back with bento at lunch, give more instructions, leave again, and return at night. Rinse and repeat every day, gradually releasing the babies into the Konoha orphanages once the shock of the Uchiha thing had died down enough.

There would be no ANBU tail, Itachi had already confirmed it was gone today; on the odd chance Sarutobi was pulling a fast one and would bring them back a couple of days later, Itachi could just as easily confirm it was gone on massacre day, a few hours before he started his killing spree.

If that was the case, and the ANBU were still around, the entire plan was simply going to be called off.

_'Now, I need a house, baby food, and baby supplies…'_

First problem: Henge would leak KI everywhere from chakra usage. And as funny as it would be to have Uchiha Madara looking thoughtful as he scoured the baby food aisle, it wasn't going to earn Yasha any privacy. And a nameless kid buying it while leaking KI enough to have even civilians glancing at him oddly, was not very private either. He'd have better chances of winning the lottery than not attracting a tail of at least _one_ curious ninja.

He had to work on a way to suppress the darkness' KI, or go in without a Henge and try to not let anyone significant see him. Well, he couldn't do it at night when the civilians were asleep; ANBU night patrols would note him even if there were 24/7 stores. He couldn't do it under a Henge, so his only hopes was finding a store near wherever he was renting the kidnapped-house, and stocking up using that.

Although, if he learnt genjutsu, he could possibly get away with making the store employees forget he existed – although he still had to pay on the off chance they totalled their stock against money in.

Extra precautions against theft in a shinobi village wouldn't be unexpected. He could shove darkness in their heads uncontested by the Hokage, claiming that they refused to sell to Naruto, so he forced them to. It would probably result in more than a slapped wrist, but the excuse would hold water.

So, the genjutsu minimum he needed to make would be… a knockout, or sense black-out. The kids could probably be gagged or restrained without genjutsu; they were young. The parents, which he had to assume would be present at least at some point, would be more difficult. He'd investigate the houses nearest to the centre of the compound first.

Best case scenario, he needed a mind seal, a real one; one that would hide any memory traces, and allow the Sharingan to activate, but the eyes to be destroyed on the carrier's death or removal pre-death. And maybe one that forced compliance to whatever he had to say – although he'd give them the ability to choose not to be a ninja, of course. He wasn't Danzō. He might enforce control over them, but he wouldn't force them to stick with him, just not to go against him or treat him lightly: it was either fully with him or fully independent.

All-out force to comply with him he'd both regret, and that control measure would eventually be broken. The human brain was a strange thing, and definitely unpredictable, no matter what measures he put in place, there would be something they'd work out.

Asides that, in this hypothetical best case scenario, he needed a soundproof home, inaccessible to anyone bar him, and not letting any sound or kids out. Also, a covert way to gain the materials to feed the kids before he chucked them into orphanages.

But for minimum: he needed the baby materials, a house, genjutsu good enough to allow him to extract them, and Naruto pacified or oblivious to his daily absences.

Getting cosy with the near-Uchiha-compound mothers as well as the Uchiha ones was also a good thing; it'd mean nothing to the Hokage after the massacre, as Yasha planned to be KO'd by Itachi and declare the whole operation a fail to the village leader. Offering to baby-sit pre-coup would be a good idea, but he only had a couple of months to build a good enough relationship for them to leave the children unattended with him on the massacre date.

Plan: The next few months, he would study genjutsu, and offer to baby-sit for all the Uchiha parents, and a couple of the near-Uchiha. Whoever took him up on the offer would grow closer to him, and he needed more details for them when their kids eventually asked. Ideally a family picture, too. He'd pretend he was an Uchiha, as he looked close enough to one. Plus, come massacre night, there was no way they'd leave a villager they had to kill with their kids. That would be too underhanded for the proud Uchiha folk.

He had just less than three months – but he wasn't sure if that was the length he had when Shisui died and postponed the plans, or the length regardless of his death.

Once the three months were up, and a month further, genin graduation would occur, complete with a traumatised village and ideally Naruto and Yasha learning shadow clone techniques.

By that time, he would have been taking care of the brats for a full month. Urgh.

If he could pull off the Shadow Clone, he'd have an easy way to watch the kids for a few months further, until the first mission he was out the village for a while. There was always the possibility he didn't have the chakra for it, or produced a clone so low on chakra it expired too early. He needed enough chakra to produce a clone that had enough chakra itself to work all day – accidental dispelling aside. Accidental dispels weren't a considerable problem, obviously most of his original Kage Bunshin chakra and notification that the clone had dispelled would return to him. He could just take a bathroom break, clone himself in the toilet, and send a new one back while returning to his genin team.

_'Would the jounin-sensei detect the sudden return of chakra? Possibly. Hopefully I'll get a lazy and/or unobservant one, like Asuma is supposed to be… No, wasn't it __**Kakashi**__ who had Naruto's team? From what I read, he relied on the team to motivate themselves. Both others were motivated by Sasuke, and Sasuke was motivated by Naruto, somewhat.'_

So, time to rent a place; Yasha would rent in advance to avoid wasting far more money on a permanent lodging, and he'd keep the building for a few months. It would probably drain money, but he had plenty – not enough to last him and Naruto much more than beyond graduation, but there you go – if they didn't graduate he could always get a part-time job or beg it off the Hokage. Notwithstanding Naruto would be so horrified at getting his friend to fail he'd probably… well, go nuts and work thirty jobs at once using Shadow Clones or something. So no worries there.

"Naruto, I'm gonna hop off for a bit; I'll be back in an hour or two."

"Can I come with you?" Naruto pulled his best big blue eyes.

Yasha sighed, scratching his cheek absently as he fixed his friend with a contemplative look. '_No reason not to, bar the obvious fact he'd need a Henge, and Naruto can't see me buy the house anyway…_

_'But Naruto looks vaguely desperate. He's been clingy since I half-killed myself by letting the darkness eat off half my skin, for obvious reasons I guess…'_

"Best not to, Naruto-kun; I'll be going to somewhere you won't be liked. I can't risk you getting hurt," he explained manipulatively.

"I don't want to risk you getting hurt either!" Naruto shot it right back at him.

"If I start getting hurt, I'll use Death Release, and scare them off," Yasha offered dismissively. "You saw me in the office, right? I can't use that if you're near me."

"You'll kill them?" Naruto said in shock.

"I doubt it, but if I have to, yeah," Yasha said, raising his eyebrows in surprise.

"You can't hurt them!" Naruto yelled, making Yasha stick his fingers in his sensitive ears. The blond hurriedly corrected his volume but still looked angry. "If you hurt them, Jiji will send you away!"

Yasha shook his head, removing his fingers with a scowl. "No he won't, Naruto, I'm your friend, and he doesn't want to upset you. Plus, he knows I'll only kill if I have a good reason."

"Don't even hurt them! How can you just talk about killing them like-"

Yasha cut him with a sudden cold glare, spilling out a phrase he had been considering for a while. "Naruto, I'm not you. I'm the sort of guy who wages war with light, who kills with a smile; a man who lives forever in the eye of a storm."

With that he turned and walked off, leaving the blond staring after him open-mouthed.

* * *

Yasha strode to a real estate agent (not the same one he bought his current home from), and asked at the desk for the house furthest from the village centre. Ironically, the first property was fairly close to the Uchiha compound, or perhaps the village was more hostile to the Uchiha than he originally thought?

Or maybe because the prison was near the Uchiha Police Force base and made the building unattractive to buyers? At any rate it was only two streets away.

He made sure he knew where it was, and went to visit. It was reportedly just a small flat with four rooms; no gas connection, plumbing 'needed work', building looked out of shape, but with the key the woman had lent him, he let himself in. Apparently there really wasn't much he could break here, so giving him the key without an accompanying estate agent wasn't even contested.

It was cold inside, and you could hear the wind blowing somewhere, but he couldn't feel any draft. There were no radiators and one wall had scorch marks halfway up, probably the ex-occupant playing with some Lightning Jutsu. The floors were plain dirty wood.

Plumbing _did_ need work; but the bath functioned, the toilet too, but the basin in the same room didn't drain. There were two water leaks, judging from the buckets on the floor and cracks in the ceiling.

The furniture was tatty but came with the house, probably expected to be dumped: two sofas, a single bed, and a couple of plain wooden chairs, one rotted somehow, although there was no apparent termite infestation. The table was in decent condition, though. Two chests of drawers and a small wardrobe – the wardrobe made odd sounds from inside as he approached, so he let it be.

Wallpaper was all but missing; it looked like the ex-occupant had papered everything up but later ripped down every loose paper, leaving a rather patchy paintwork, along with ripped paper stuck to the walls through the entire building. There was also a weird smell which he couldn't place.

The whole thing had five windows that were smeared over with dirt and grime, no longer see-through, and only one pair of curtains.

But the rent was dirt cheap and the entire street was full of real estate ads and looked decidedly shady, albeit mostly unoccupied. The tension with the Uchiha must really be something.

Yasha smiled; he'd found his kidnapped kids hidey-hole.

The next question: how to get them here. He could get a street route down, but ideally he needed something more covert.

Not the Summoning scrolls; even if he could reproduce his summoning scroll, AND get the blood, AND there was no adjustments needed to the seal… he wouldn't have the chakra for one summon, let alone all ten targets. Summoning techniques were high level; only Jounin could produce the chakra necessary to drag a living being across space. The flash of chakra would release KI, too. So that was out the window.

_'Hmm… a covert escape route…'_ A weird idea struck him: a tunnel into the Uchiha compound? It would hide him from prying eyes while he snuck off with the kids, plus he could chuck them in the tunnel entrance (gagged and bound) and not worry about dragging them all the way to this place straight-away. That'd give him precious time.

Although, to make the tunnel work, he would either need to learn Doton [Earth ] jutsu (unlikely, this wasn't Iwa), or use his attention-grabbing darkness techniques to dissolve-dig a hole. Maybe the killing intent would be undetectable if it was deep enough underground? He wouldn't need to light the tunnel, since his bloodline let him see in the dark.

Manual digging wouldn't work. For one, he would have to physically dig, risking a cave-in on his head, whereas he could use the darkness at a distance. For two, his digging speed and the distance to cover, even given a few months, was going to be horrifically draining and no way realistic – he was a kid, and the density of that earth at that depth had to be pretty significant.

On the other hand, using the darkness to attack non-flesh while making sure it wouldn't attack him would drain his chakra considerably. He'd get in about ten minutes per day of focused, high-speed digging, what with all the breaks he would need to replenish his chakra.

_'Damn you, lack of Shadow Clone knowledge. Seriously, the number of times I've needed that thing is ridiculous. I'm going to spam that thing without any mercy when I do get it. And if for some reason Naruto doesn't learn about it, I'm gonna steal the friggin' scroll myself, consequences be damned.'_

He had to try, though… in a pinch, the darkness would destroy the surrounding earth if the tunnel collapsed, and he could just make a hole upwards, should work… but his plan was to make it very far underground, so the KI wouldn't leak, and so the weight of the dirt above him would mean anyone walking above would have no significant difference.

Or something.

The last thing he wanted was 40 foot of dirt on his head. If he was carrying a child at the time, the brat would die, from being buried with him or from his use of darkness trying to get him to escape; they'd happily eat the one he was carrying.

He frowned. The Sharingan saw chakra, but it couldn't penetrate walls, although chakra constructs like a Henge were possible to see through. So his being underground would make it harder for him to be seen, but not impossible – after all, the Uchiha weren't famously scared of Iwa ninja or Doton hiding techniques, so they must be able to see some amount. Maybe there was a traceable path of chakra left by Doton techniques?

Whatever the case… he wanted to be sure of his options. There was no point in tunnelling 50 foot underground only to discover the Uchiha knew all about him because the KI was obvious or the chakra release was easily detected.

Yasha looked outside, regaining his bearings, and worked out where the Uchiha compound was by some mental calculation; a good kilometre or so digging. _'So, ignoring any chances of cave-ins, and assuming I don't have to go around anything like sewer systems, I'll still need to dig a thousand metres in about three months, a rate of about eleven metres per day… not that extreme, but dirt is hard-packed as solid as rock at that depth.'_

Which meant he had to use his darkness… and he was fairly certain the resulting tunnel _would_ cave in. The odds of rain during the three months were fairly likely, and it would loosen the dirt and flood the tunnel at minimum.

He scowled. He probably wouldn't have the strength to remove dirt that hard-packed, even while enhancing his digging with chakra. He'd be better off focusing on the escape routes, checking out the surrounding areas, and winging it above ground. Patrols near the Police Force compound were bound to be sloppy, and the odds of the police not being shinobi, was very small.

Meanwhile… it was time to get genjutsu, and get chummy with the Uchiha women.

* * *

"Ohaiyo, Shiori-san. I'm Yasha, remember me? I wanna know if you need a babysitter for tonight?"

"Huh?" The woman blinked at him. "I haven't planned anything…"

"Oh, okay. I charge two hundred 'n' fifty ryou per night." Yasha smiled at her as he gave a rather cheap price, much cheaper than a D-Rank anyway. "I'll take good care of your kids. Let me know when you need me and tell any other mother friends you have!"

"Hold it." Shiori caught his collar as he turned to leave, a scary glint in her eye. "You aren't getting away that easily."

Within ten minutes Yasha was presented with a two-year-old to watch while the gleeful woman dragged her startled husband off to the Konoha cinema.

Said two-year-old then took to toddling around after him as Yasha idly explored the woman's house. "Damn you, Takumi Uchiha." He scowled down at the boy. "Now I have to watch you all day?!"

"Hai!" the boy responded cheerfully.

Yasha smirked and knelt, absent-mindedly flicking the boy on the forehead for the lack of his acknowledgement of his elder's pain. The boy pouted and looked ready to cry, so much for Uchiha pride, until Yasha interrupted him. "You're gonna be a ninja when you grow up?"

"Hai!" Takumi grinned proudly after abandoning his pout. Ninja career declarations and pouting probably didn't go well together.

"Why?" Yasha asked blankly.

"Tou-san is!" the boy explained with a flourish, like the entire universe's problems were solved in that statement.

"Solid argument," Yasha muttered to himself. So that was why people had family tree occupations; it was just a matter of being too lazy to think otherwise. He ruffled the boy's spikey hair and stood up deftly, ignoring the don't-touch-my-hair pout. "Fine then, come along, I'll teach you how to make a Rasengan."

Not that Yasha knew how to teach that, but Takumi could barely focus chakra to his hand for a couple of minutes before falling asleep from exhaustion. Yasha observed the snoozing boy whilst smirking. "If only all kids were that easy to handle…"

* * *

Shiori was pleased by his efforts, surprisingly enough.

Her son Takumi was fully convinced Yasha was the coolest person he knew, since no one else had dared teach two-year-olds chakra manipulation.

Coming home a couple of hours later, to find her kid surprisingly tired out, made for a very quiet evening. Yasha explained Takumi was wearing himself out in the garden, the wording of which made Takumi agree happily, and proclaim he was going to be a 'nin-da', which made the impromptu babysitter snort. Shiori assumed he had been put up to doing some exercising under the pretence of physical build-up. Yasha was shortly after presented with four hundred ryou as it was clear the effects of his babysitting would last longer than he was here.

He made his exit and found himself wandering back to Naruto. Four hundred was enough to buy a decent meal. It was generous of her.

Although a D-Rank for babysitting would be over a thousand ryou, and distributed among three people.

Her husband, a chuunin named Ryūga, still looked rather perturbed by the sudden afternoon out and had only managed to give a quick thanks to Yasha before the boy left. Truth be told, Yasha didn't want to stick around someone who most likely had activate-able Sharingan. Revealing his non-Uchiha identity and/or his place as the 'KI alarm clock' (_'Kami, what a name'),_ would be decidedly unwise.

Most of the time he was there, the kid had been dozing in the garden, conked out from messing with his tiny levels of chakra. Yasha had ample free time to think over the Uchiha rescue plans and study his genjutsu scrolls, completing his reading of one and a half of the three. The whole babysitting session was a breeze overall, but Yasha had been relieved when Takumi had woken up before his parents got back. It would've been awkward if the exhaustion had kept him in dreamland for too much longer.

Although, two and a half hours was more than enough for a certain blond maelstrom to be sighted running through the streets searching for someone. Of course, few people would deign to give him directions, and fewer still accurate ones, so he was quite flustered when Yasha met up with him a couple of streets from the Uchiha compound.

The brunette completely ignored the blond's calls and Naruto grabbed his arm, only to be fixed with a very puzzled expression. The brunette said questioningly, "You look a lot like Naruto, you know."

"What?" Naruto's train of thought violently derailed. "That's because I am Naruto, dattebayo!"

"No, that's not right." Yasha pointed up to the Hokage monument in the distance. "See, Naruto is up there, waiting for me to get back, _like I asked him_. He's not running around in the streets in a village that hates him, that would be _stupid_, since I didn't bring him with me _because_ he might have gotten hurt."

The blond was left stunned into silence as his actions motivated by concern were categorically dismissed as some kind of failure. "So, Naruto-lookalike, I suggest you inform the real Naruto I'll be back up there in about ten minutes," Yasha informed him while striding unhurriedly towards the monument. "We'll be going for supper soon after I get there."

Yasha sighed a few seconds later as he heard footsteps running in an alternate route to the monument. The sooner Naruto learnt to obey every word, the better; the last thing he wanted was to go look after the kidnapped Uchiha underlings, overshoot Naruto's estimate of his return time, and have the blond turn up on the kids' doorstep. The blond was all but incapable of keeping a secret like the kids; and even one attempt for him to find Yasha would raise questions if he asked around some cautious-minded people.

Although, he did keep the orphanage's abuse of him a secret – but then no one seemed too concerned with his injuries anyway. All it would take was someone mildly observant having a conversation with Naruto, asking about the injuries, and noticing he was lying; clearly no one had done that in his whole life.

A bit disappointing, but the Hokage would have to pre-schedule visits, so that explained why he didn't notice; and beside that the only people who were around him were just the Academy instructors, who were used to injured kids who trained too hard, and had other kids to worry about. Naruto with his over-confidence seemed the type to train to the point of injuring himself, hell, he even managed to injure himself writing kana. Nonetheless, it was worryingly lax on their part, that an orphan's abuse could just slip through all the protective filters the village had.

Yasha frowned. _'Honestly, it's like no one paid a damn bit of attention where it matters.'_

The Academy instructors were meant to be chuunin – a rank that gave them recognition of their leadership and strategy skills. _'And wasn't noticing allies' injuries a good part of strategy?'_ Sure, no one would blame them for ignoring pre-genin injuries; they were _ninja_ in training.

And Naruto would be last to blame them or raise the problem. That was the point: _No one_ was ever to blame when social services failed a child, and the child would be unlikely to bring up the repressed past and memories to start pointing fingers. It would be horrifically uncomfortable for them, and they wouldn't see it as a nice thing to do anyway, as the staff would normally have moved on. You'd be getting retired people and rubbing their names in the dirt.

Conclusion: a flawed system kept failing from lack of discipline, caused by lack of discipline. A vicious cycle. _'Man, if I become Hokage… the rank of chuunin is gonna mean a whole damn lot more. I'll find the most __**sadistic**__ jounin around and get them to work on the chuunin 'observational' skills until they can notice each missing hair from a balding man's head.'_ He smirked to himself as a certain purple-haired woman sneezed in the distance.

_'I would complain to the current Hokage, but I only saw one night's abuse, pretending to know about a whole string of them… hold on, no, that doesn't give away anything about me, just my sponsor. I should talk to the Hokage about that, a bit more seriously. This neglect is horribly lax and needs noticing. If it wasn't the Jinchūriki, there'd be no excuse for it point blank, and frankly using that status is a shitty excuse for anyone who knows what sealing is.'_

But then, Naruto could be taught Bunshin properly, and that would lead to him graduating, meaning he would steal a forbidden Scroll of Sealing.

Well, still. He had to make a note of that on his calendar, lest he forgot. Speaking of which – he needed a calendar. He diverted into a conveniently-placed stationery shop and bought a simple one. A bit unusual to buy one this far past the start of the year, but there you go.

He made his return to the Hokage monument to find Naruto still reading the book, appearing to have never left. "How's it going Naruto-kun?"

"Um… I think I'm done. I should know both syllables and the ninja hand sign language now," Naruto said in a placating tone. Yasha's reaction to his search had been scathingly cold and he was still unrecovered from it.

"Syllabaries," Yasha corrected absently. "Guess it's that unhealthy crap you call ramen for supper tonight then!"

"Hey! Ramen is the best, dattebayo!" Naruto shot back at him, all attempts at placating suspended.

"I didn't say it wasn't," Yasha's unruffled response made Naruto stutter and rethink over what he had said.

Eventually the blond slumped, looking sulky as his emotional outburst turned out unnecessary. "You're mean, Yasha-kun."

Yasha played innocent. "Hmm? I just said it's unhealthy, and it is. It's got little nutritional value. That's why I'm taller than you."

The sulk got more pronounced, much to the brunette's glee. "You're shorter," Naruto mumbled.

"Am not. Try measuring now I'm not walking."

Much to Naruto's chagrin, he was indeed shorter, albeit only by that half an inch. The pouting intensified. Yasha quickly moved on and held up the large white wall calendar, complete with shinobi pictures on the top half. "I bought a calendar. Tell me your birthday, I'll write it down."

"October 10th," Naruto said morbidly, recalling the drunken abuse he had to endure on that day each year. He knew kids used to celebrate birthdays, but he'd never been to a party where he'd enjoyed the 'celebrations'.

Yasha turned to the date and scribbled down his birthday, pretending to be clueless. "Ooh. You got the Kyuubi Defeat Festival on the same day! You're lucky! We should go check that out this year. You can show me around."

"Um… hai." Naruto was understandably subdued, having never been in the festival much less been capable of walking the day after due to the villager's 'festival games'.

_'I'll be graduating this year though; the villagers will acknowledge me as a genin, right? Well, that's still about eight months from now…'_

"Tell you what, I'll Henge into the Kyuubi, you can Henge into the Yondaime, and we'll have a battle on the Hokage monument on your next birthday."

Naruto faceplanted at Yasha's blatant disregarding of the Third's orders despite the havoc he had just avoided a few hours ago. Saying that, it sounded like an _awesome_ idea.

Yasha wasn't done, though, busy clarifying why it was a worthy idea. "It'd be good for festivity. And the villagers won't go nuts if we do it far away from the village but within sight. And afterwards we can release the Henge and bow like real actors. We could make it a traditional thing, and do it every year or something."

"You can make anything sound like a good thing to do." Naruto wasn't sure what he thought of that ability.

"Sure. It's all about how you word it. Here, Naruto, take this poison." Yasha held out an intangible bottle. "One less people on the earth means more oxygen for the others!"

Naruto gave him an awed look. "You actually make taking poison sound like a good idea, dattebayo!"

"Well, you have no more problems to worry about if you're dead, don't have to worry about going to work or school, no worries about fulfilling obligations," Yasha held out both hands and counted off the reasons, "No more using up the planet's limited resources, your body will be used as plant fertiliser and help feed the bugs, don't have to pay rent or bills, it becomes literally impossible to assassinate you…"

"Stop! Stop, dattebayo!" Naruto was holding his hands to his ears, unable to stop a grin forming despite the twisted sense of humour. Yasha grinned back at him.

"How do you do that?" Naruto almost pleaded at him to spill the beans. "It's almost scary!"

"Well… I'll tell you the whole secret. The secret to all manipulation…" Yasha watched the anticipation grow as he stalled and dragged it out. When Naruto seemed ready to scream he continued, "Nothing is right or wrong. People make up what it is by themselves."

"Huh?" Naruto's brow furrowed in thought.

"It's like, you love ramen, but it's unhealthy. But, unhealthy food can be made quickly, and generally tastes really good, and healthy food takes ages to make and normally is pretty bad."

"Like vegetables." Naruto scowled at the mention of the evil creations.

Yasha smirked. "Right. But unhealthy food is bad for your body, but good for your tastes and time-saving, and healthy is the opposite. So you pick which good you care about: the good nutrition of healthy food, or the good taste and fast creating of the unhealthy one."

Naruto nodded, still frowning.

Yasha gave these metaphors as another way of testing the blond's uncertain level of intelligence. "Put simply, ramen is neither a bad food nor a good food. If I didn't like the taste or I was obsessed with being healthy, I'd call it bad. But I'm not like that. It's the same with everything, from the Kyuubi to the wind to doors."

"I pick if it's good or bad?" Naruto repeated.

"Yep. Well, everyone picks for themselves, unless they let someone pick for them. It's called being subjective."

"Well, ramen is the best," the blond deadpanned.

"And it's unhealthy… and that makes no difference."

"Right!" Naruto suddenly smiled.

"And here's the point, Naruto. If you can analyse both sides of anything, weigh up both things…" Yasha fixed him with a emphasised look, "…the more you're capable of that, the cleverer you are. Before you punch someone, think _why_ they did what they did. Think what will happen if you do or don't hit them. Think about _everything_."

"What…?" Naruto was gaping. "But that'd take _forever!"_

Yasha shook his head. "No, not if you think about it in advance. Plus, you'll get quicker at it. You'll end up doing it subconsciously. I already know how many people will react, and how much they'll react, if I hurt you, or if I killed you, or if I was seen walking with you… everything, really."

Naruto paled at Yasha casually mentioning he could kill him. He still wasn't used to that aspect of his friend; the part that 'kills with a smile'. It scared him. "Is that why you can manipulate easily?"

"I can make decisions quickly when it comes to people, because I've already made them subconsciously. And yes," Yasha sighed, "that's most of the reason why. When I meet someone, I analyse them: their intelligence, their traits, their physique, their weaknesses and strengths – I keep testing every so often. It's a good trait, but it's also rather creepy."

"Yeah…" Naruto said slowly, feeling a bit like a bug under a microscope now.

Yasha clapped his hand over his shoulder, smiling broadly. "So don't worry! I already know what'll happen if I kill you and how fast the response teams will be. You won't even notice my scheme until it's too late."

"Eh-heh…" Naruto stepped away, eyes repetitively scanning his questionable friend worryingly.

"See, now you're scared of me," Yasha said triumphantly. "So, anyway, next time: stay on the damn monument. It's a really, really bad idea to not do what I say, it's very likely things will become awful, and not _just_ because the village hates you." Yasha fixed him with a stern look. "Do it because I have a plan, and it can be complex, but it'd most definitely be hidden. If I tell you to do something, there's a plan behind it. Going against it could ruin the plan, and I _seriously_ hate it when I waste time. Particularly on a plan."

"What kind of plans do _you_ have?!" Naruto spluttered, shaken up by the amount of emphasis a fellow twelve-year-old was placing on his schemes.

Yasha laid down and glanced upwards, eyes distant. "Let me put it this way: I have plans that last several years, and the time I left earlier today was to help for a plan that lasts a few months. If I carry out said few-months plan successfully," Yasha fixed him with a serious look that made the other boy quell his disbelief and get serious as well, "I _will_ save the lives of several people. If that plan fails, _at all_, they _will_ die. If you get involved, the plan is _definitely_ going to be ruined. These are absolute facts."

Naruto beheld him with a stunned gaze, eyes as wide as saucers. _'How can Yasha know about these people who are going to die? Why __**him**__?' _He spoke sullenly, more of a statement than a question. "I can't help at all?"

Yasha hastily dismissed that hope. "Not at all. If there is room to fit you in, I will tell you, trust me on that – but don't ask me about it, the plan is completely secret. Asking at all or trying to figure out what I'm doing will cause you to um… be banned from ramen for a month. Seriously."

Naruto went pale again. Yasha was serious. And his threat was, too. He knew well enough Yasha's threats, when peppered with 'serious', were completely going to be fulfilled if he pushed it – even the more ridiculous ones. Yasha had demonstrated that often enough during their teaching sessions – such as ordering him to do a hundred press-ups before he would speak another word to his friend.

It had worn Naruto out but true to his word, regardless of what Naruto did, the brunette had ignored every question and action, and silently waited until the blond completed his 100th press-up. Yasha explained later that he considered what he said wasn't 'his word' until he added the phrase 'seriously', but once he did say that (or if he literally said 'I promise'), he would consider it a promise. And he'd fulfil any promise if at all possible, or die trying.

"Seriously, Naruto-kun, I need you to just _listen_ to what I say." Yasha was just shy of a pleading tone, something Naruto had never heard him use. Ever.

The normal confident/humorous tone seeped back as the brunette continued, "Don't be a thoughtless idiot about it, like sticking around up here when a group of unhappy-looking villagers turn up just because I told you to stick around, but you know what I mean."

Naruto fixed his puzzled gaze onto Yasha's intensely dark eyes. He failed to come up with arguments, again – Yasha's voice bled of sincere and deep concern. He wasn't used to Yasha being so concerned with anything – he was confident and determined all the time, but _concerned_…

"Fine," Naruto turned away from the offsetting expression so he could muster the ability to add, "…but I don't like it, dattebayo."

An unseen sigh of relief shuddered through Yasha and he allowed his always-tense form to briefly lose most of its straightness for a few seconds and slump a little. "I didn't expect you to. Thanks, Naruto-kun. Maybe a few years later I'll be able to tell you about it."

Naruto sighed, his tone glum. "I'd have forgotten it by then."

Yasha half-shrugged. That wasn't important. "It won't affect you personally, though. I'll just be training on my own for a long time, although I'll still teach you like normal. That's all that will change; I'll just run off somewhere a lot and look all mysterious for a few months."

"Hmph." Naruto was still downhearted over it. He had lost much of his enthusiasm over the sobering thought of not being part of Yasha's plans. The clarifications weren't helping a huge amount, either.

"Oi. I thought you'd be happy knowing I'm putting the villagers first," Yasha said in mock surprise.

"I guess I should be…" Naruto attempted a smile but it fell dismally flat. He still wasn't convinced.

Yasha rolled his eyes at him. He was still so sensitive to people leaving him out of things. Well, it could be expected. "Fine, let's go. Early supper."

Naruto perked up considerably, but unbeknownst to Yasha, he made a note to figure out what this plan was whenever it started. Even if Yasha was so sure of it failing if he found out, and Naruto was fairly sure Yasha was smart enough to predict stuff like that, but… Naruto would just have to be _extra_ careful not to be noticed. If Yasha was in a scenario where people could die, Naruto could hardly ignore that amount of danger.

* * *

As 6pm struck, strange cloud of dust could be seen outside Konoha's most famous ramen stand.

"Die, worm! Die!"

"Nope!" Naruto smirked, moving his head from side to side as Yasha half-heartedly threw punches at it.

"I pinned you. You lose anyway!" Yasha grinned manically, speeding up his punches.

Naruto wiggled, but couldn't escape. For some reason Yasha was super-heavy and wouldn't budge. "I don't lose! I'm the future Hokage, dattebayo!"

"Not if you lose you're not!" Yasha threw another punch, glancing off Naruto's head. "Ha! Got you in the head! That means I win!"

"Nope! I don't lose, dattebayo!"

Yasha shrugged, his punching pausing for a while. Naruto glanced up, feeling dizzy from all the head movement.

"I wouldn't even need to hit you, you know. I just have to touch you once, and my insects would have marked you," Yasha pointed out in a smug tone.

Naruto scowled. "Your insects are dumb."

"Really?" The brunette looked thoughtful for a while, but Naruto's attempt to take advantage of the distraction failed. "That just means I'm bad at using them."

"Huh?!" Naruto didn't see the leap in logic there.

Yasha dumbed it down, as usual. "If they can't think for themselves, I have to tell them what to do. So if I tell them what to do, and they do something dumb, it's my fault. If a tool has no intelligence of its own, its use is all down to the wielder."

Naruto blinked in confusion, and a sudden pain in his forehead interrupted his thoughts. "Ow!"

"Face hit! I win!" Yasha crowed, still holding his fist against the blond's forehead.

Naruto scowled, staring up defiantly. "I was thinking! No fair!"

Yasha stuck his tongue out in response. "Concede or I'll make you homeless!"

"You wouldn't!" Naruto dared, sticking his own tongue out.

"I would, that means double ramen for me tonight!"

"Huh?! No way!" Naruto redoubled his squirming efforts, but Yasha was still barely budging.

Ayame joined in with a smirk. "You two keep that up, the shop will close and there'd be none left for either of you."

Both boys turned to look at her disdainfully, the blond's struggle for movement halting. Yasha shrugged. "Naruto has to concede before I carry on eating."

"Why did you challenge him to an eating race anyway?" Teuchi sighed in despair. "My delicious ramen should be savoured, not scoffed!"

Ayame hit him lightly on the arm. "Oi, tou-san. The customer is always right."

"Except when he's wrong…" Teuchi muttered sourly as he retreated to his back-room lair.

All three started chuckling.

"Well, boys… as amusing as the scene is, you're driving away customers."

The two blinked at her, then looked back at each other and blinked again. "Tough," they both said in unison.

Ayame's disapproving frown faded into a giggle despite her best efforts as they started up again.

"Now give up!"

"Nuh uh! You give up!"

"Future Hokage-sama, it's important to know when to cut your losses and make a tactical retreat." Yasha said disapprovingly.

"Retreat? I don't understand that term," Naruto said blankly.

Yasha actually did a double-take at that. Naruto was getting _very_ good at sarcasm. "It means you admit my superiority. In all things, because admitting the things one at a time would take too long."

Naruto attempted a shrug. "I get it. I'll wait for you to _retreat_, then."

Yasha waggled a finger in correction. "Oi, oi. I'm in a superior position here. I won't just give it up like that."

"Says who? You're just about to lose," Naruto said confidently.

"Says you and what army? I could take you on any day!"

"It's actually night," corrected the blond.

"Shuddup. You don't know nothing. You challenged my superiority and now you will eat dirt!" Yasha grabbed a handful of the rocky dust and Naruto gave a girlish shriek in horror.

Yasha blinked confusedly, too off-put by the pitch to even react properly. "Was that you, or did someone just strangle a cat?"

"Shuddup, dattebayo!" Naruto flushed a dark red in embarrassment. At this point Ayame could no longer be seen behind the counter. She was clutching her sides laughing breathlessly.

Yasha smirked. "Or what? You'll burst my eardrums with your high-pitched, girly squeaking?"

"I'll… I'll…" Naruto attempted to work out how he could one-up Yasha without risking being booted out the house or failing miserably in his attempt. He fought for a few seconds against his own logic and sighed in defeat, murmuring, "I'll kick your ass, dattebayo."

Yasha's smirk widened and he spoke patronisingly. "_Aww…_ no, I mean it, what will you do?"

"I'll kick your ass, you fatty freak!" Naruto snapped, wriggling vigorously.

"I'm not fat, I'm just big-boned," Yasha defended gallantly, still easily pinning him under his increased weight.

Naruto looked nonplussed. "Oh wow, even _Chouji_ uses that excuse. And either way you weigh a ton. How'd you gain weight so fast?"

"It's a ninja secret." Yasha smirked, tapping the side of his nose.

"What?!" Naruto looked disappointed. "Damnit! I wanna learn it! Teach me!"

"Like you could learn anything this awesome. Being fa- _big boned_, is a skill only a select few can wield."

Naruto started snickering at Yasha's failed attempt to cover his first choice of word. Yasha bopped him on the head. "Don't you do that! Fat people have pride!"

"I didn't do nothing!" Naruto yelped.

"Damn right you didn't!"

Ayame slowly recovered herself, calling in a shaky tone, "Boys, your food is getting cold."

Yasha smirked at her. "Don't worry, once Naruto admits defeat, I'll use a Katon jutsu and heat it up."

"You know Katon jutsu?!" Naruto asked with a pout.

"Sure, the 'put in the oven' jutsu."

They started laughing again but Naruto was still pinned. And then Naruto cried out in pain from a sudden crack in his side.

Yasha's weight vanished instantly. Naruto blinked through the sudden pain – Yasha was fast. _Really_ fast.

"Excuse me, _sir_. You appear to have kicked one of my friends. I suggest you apologise, before things get unpleasant." Yasha was apparently standing just behind him. In about quarter of a second, he had moved in the person's way.

The civilian in question appeared to be a brown-haired guy in his thirties, with five others with him, all starting to look menacingly at the twelve-year-old. "I didn't kick 'im, squirt. Back off, or I'll make you."

"Yeah, get lost, brat," another chimed in.

Yasha just smiled disturbingly at the group as his housemate struggled to his feet. That hit was harder than Naruto expected – he still couldn't stand properly. "Naruto-kun, get out the way, I'm going to use _it_."

_'His bloodline?!'_ Naruto realised in horror. "No, Yasha-kun!"

"Move. Seriously." Yasha's gaze and tone were completely icy.

Naruto froze at the keyword, half of him wanting to obey and the other knowing going near would disarm Yasha completely and make him lose whatever he was starting. But he didn't want the villagers hurt. "I'm going to be their Hokage, I can't if you kill them, dattebayo!"

"They don't deserve someone like you as a Hokage," Yasha spat, and Naruto was beginning to feel that weird pressure emitting from his friend. The six men shifted, one well within range to punch Yasha. Naruto could only observe with horror, still fighting with himself. He didn't want this.

Yasha's tone became darker as the two glared at each other. "Apologise, or I will shove your fucking eyes through your brain."

"Fuck off," two growled, one flipping out a pair of kunai that Yasha didn't even acknowledge. Naruto knew he had seen them – Yasha was way too observant for-

A new voice interrupted, tone laced with poison. "Oh, is there a problem here?"

A lady with ringed red eyes and flowing, slightly unruly black hair stepped forward confidently, a forehead protector wrapped around her head and purple eye shadow. She was wearing something that looked like wide bandages with a rose thorn pattern, and underneath that, Yasha could see the right sleeve of red mesh armour blouse. Her hands and upper thighs were wrapped in bandages, but she didn't seem injured. _'Jounin, most likely,'_ Yasha noted, allowing himself to relax slightly.

"This brat started on us, miss," one said angrily.

The lady put her hands on her hips daringly. "_Really?_ Because I _heard_ you kick that blond over there."

The men glared, but everyone could feel her confidence and no one was going to risk their neck. "My mistake," the one closest to Yasha hissed, "I thought I missed him."

"That's a shitty apology. Just fuck off." Yasha turned away, flapping his hand dismissively and Naruto heaved a sigh of relief he didn't even remember inhaling. The lady didn't look impressed by either of the two parties but stared hard at the frustrated men until they left, muttering angrily.

"You two don't seem very popular," she said airily.

Yasha stared at the ground, visibly calming himself for a few seconds. He looked up at her with a humourless smile. "We're both called demons for different reasons."

Kurenai blinked. _'Then that means…'_

Naruto spoke up quickly. "Thanks for helping, um…?"

"Yūhi Kurenai. And you two are?"

The blond grinned brightly. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and he's Yasha, dattebayo." A sudden jolt of pain from his side stopped him from his Hokage announcement.

Yasha gave a genuine albeit small grin, bowing slightly to the jounin. "Charmed to make your acquaintance, although the circumstances could've been better."

Kurenai smiled pleasantly in response. Yasha had been emitting KI she detected at the end of the street, and she had picked up her pace to investigate. Seeing two boys facing off against six men wasn't what she was expecting.

Yasha turned to the blond, scowling. "As future Hokage, you don't need _scumbags_ for subordinates."

Naruto returned the scowl. "Let me pick who I want. It's my decision."

"You'd let a paedophiliac murderer in if he looked normal!"

_'That escalated quickly…'_ Kurenai thought, somewhat horrified by the conversation. The Kyuubi being Hokage?

"I would not, dattebayo! And you're just being rude thinking I will!"

"Half the villagers are too dumb to know what you really are!"

Kurenai blinked. _'Did he just say… no, he didn't.'_ She felt like she had to step in again…

"Boys, your food!" Ayame called.

Naruto ran back to his bowl, and tasted it looking appalled. "Aww, Yasha, you dumbo! Now it's all cold, dattebayo!"

Yasha slid down in the seat next to him, smirking at his own empty bowl. "You should've conceded, stupid!"

"You're stupid, dattebayo!"

"Your face is stupid!"

"Baka!"

"Baka!" Yasha echoed back with a grin.

Kurenai got the impression she had been completely disregarded. She eyed up the stand where the two boys were eating/bickering. _'Well, haven't had ramen in a while.'_

She slid into the seat beside the blond. "One miso ramen, Ayame-san… So what are you two doing? Are you in the Academy?"

"Yeah! I'm gonna be the next Hokage, dattebayo!" Naruto announced, shooting his fist into the air.

Yasha shook his head. "Nah. You won't be old enough in time. Maybe the one after."

Kurenai briefly wondered if the Third would still be around in eight years or so… probably not; he was already fairly haggard from duty. But who could replace him? The Three Sannin were the closest in terms of power, but all had gone their separate ways. She couldn't imagine any of them in the seat. Nor the rest of the elder council, for that matter.

"I'll be the youngest Hokage ever, dattebayo!" Naruto broadcasted over her thoughts.

Yasha jabbed his thumb downwards. "Boo! In that case I'll be Hokage before you!"

Naruto paused, losing a bit of his excitement. "Do you actually want to be?"

Yasha frowned. "No, baka. But they're appointed by a council anyway. Any ninja who runs off rather than being appointed would be a missing-nin. Although I doubt they want someone who's near a Kage level to be suddenly enemies of Konoha."

"You don't like Konoha anyway," Naruto pointed out.

"Hang on, you don't?" Kurenai said in surprise.

Naruto and Yasha both nodded, much to her surprise. The brunette continued, staring down at his half-finished bowl morbidly. "I don't like people. And there's a lot of child abusers here, people I especially don't like."

Kurenai blanched at the thought until she realised why Yasha would think that. She felt suddenly ashamed of herself as she realised she had called the spunky blond a monster in her head earlier.

If it had been Naruto facing them off, would she actually have interfered? She saw the scene so often that… damnit.

She had just admitted to herself that Jinchūriki abuse happened around her with such commonality she barely would've noticed. And wasn't she the one who was always talking about women being just as strong as men and not to make assumptions about people on sight?

She blinked as a bowl was placed in front of her, interrupting her thoughts. "Itadakimasu," she said soberly, digging in. The undertone of guilt was ruining the taste.

She looked over at Yasha again, suppressing her shocked look as she realised the brunette felt scarier than the Jinchūriki did. How was that?

"Yūhi-san-" Yasha began.

"Kurenai, please," she corrected him absently.

"Kurenai-san, what rank are you? Jounin?"

She felt a flush of indignation before that last word. Good, he wasn't underestimating her. "Hai, a Jounin. Recently promoted."

"That's really cool, dattebayo!" Naruto stated enthusiastically whilst Yasha asked, "What do you specialise in?"

"Genjutsu," she said shortly, expecting Yasha to drift off and look bored like most kids, not to do the opposite and perk up.

"Really?!" he grinned. _'Gold mine!'_

_'You can't miss the excitement in his tone. Another genjutsu devotee?'_ Kurenai nodded with a sudden smile at the kindred spirit. "Yes, why?"

"I need someone to help me with genjutsu. Can you do some demonstrations?"

They both looked at her expectantly, as if she was just going to throw one onto them straight away. Kurenai blinked. "Demonstrations? You know most genjutsu is meant to horrify anyone it's placed on, right?"

Yasha slurped up the rest of the bowl. "Yeah. But I don't need to worry about that."

"He's immune to genjutsu," Naruto informed her, erasing her frown at Yasha's apparent arrogance.

Yasha bopped him on the head with the side of his fist. "Don't just blurt out my strengths and weaknesses, baka! Seriously!"

"Ow!" Naruto half-whined, realising Yasha's glare was real. "Gomen, Yasha!"

Kurenai smiled at their antics while considering. Clearly Yasha was too polite to expect training straight off the bat, but it was obvious that was what he wanted. No one in their right mind wanted stupefying and/or upsetting genjutsu cast onto them. She could provide training, but it would make things awkward unless he was placed on her team later. No doubt he would graduate in the next exit exam.

The amount of danger her instincts was picking up was quite intriguing. It had been even further just prior to him releasing the chakra smoke. Then it had been a solid danger feeling, but now it was a niggling worry, like a little black fog on the back of her mind, tugging at her in warning. It was like he was tripping her sixth sense – she wasn't sure she should offer, but after that mental speech about making assumptions…

"I can demonstrate for you, and if you want I can train you… But come next Academy graduation, unless you're on my team I'd expect I'll have to stop training completely." Then a thought struck her and she paled slightly. "You _do_ have at least a D-Rank down, right?"

"I'm about halfway through Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu, I guess. I've been testing it on Shikaku-sama."

Kurenai was again gaping_. 'The Jounin Commander is being a test dummy for this student? Whatever possessed him to do that?!'_

Then she realised what he had said. "Only halfway?" she muttered disappointedly.

Yasha shrugged, weaving his manipulation skills again. "He could only report what he saw, really… he wasn't experienced with genjutsu like a real user is, so he could only suggest."

_'Take the bait to prove your craft,'_ He silently thought to himself.

"Hmm… I guess not," Kurenai mused, taking a mouthful of ramen and reconsidering. "Fine then, I'll give you five attempts, and instructions in-between, but come fifth failure, I won't train you."

"That's fine! Thanks, Kurenai-san!"

Naruto looked up, swallowing his noodles quickly. "Hey, hey, I want her to train me, as well, dattebayo!"

"Naruto-kun…" Yasha began, then realised if he mentioned anything about low possibilities of completion, Naruto would become obsessed with proving himself with it. "Fine. How about you get five attempts as well?"

Naruto's preliminary frown faded as he realised Yasha wasn't going to deny him. "Right! I won't lose to you, Yasha-kun!"

"Really? You just did a few minutes ago."

Kurenai observed detachedly as the two started bickering again. _'With a Jinchūriki's chakra stores, his control had to be ridiculously good to use genjutsu, and his chakra seems all but unruly. Yasha looked like he knew he couldn't do it… so why did he suggest something that would lead Naruto to failure?'_

She continued her meal, spending most of it wondering why Yasha was scary. At one point she even used Kai quietly, but it was no genjutsu.

It was interesting to analyse it, though, as a genjutsu user. The principle behind it involved activating the neural pathways that set off the danger instinct, and considering the reason for that enforced the pathways further, generating a loop that if ignored would retain the instinct in a near-constant level, and if focused on would increasing it, causing fear and paranoia. She estimated given ten minutes or so of focusing on Yasha's scariness, paranoia would emerge.

It was no simple danger sense, nor was it a bloodline. No bloodline had the ability to invoke changes in other people without chakra communication, she was sure of it. Her chakra remained undisturbed throughout, she just felt wary. Intrigued, she analysed some more.

The fear triggered was similar to nyctophobia, or the fear of the dark, but rooted to the fear of dying. It was similar to KI being released, but rather, it was like tiptoeing around a sleeping tiger. There was no death happening, but there was such _potential_ for it, your body reacted accordingly. It reminded the jounin of that time she had to find a missing-nin in the dark and went past a few corpses. She felt the same sort of fear then.

Yasha, in short, subconsciously gave off something that made people around him fear he was going to kill them. He was clever to go for genjutsu, whatever was causing it asides, because a lot of genjutsu exploited that fear. Having half your work done for you not only gave you a boost, but it gave you a constant neural pathway to use as an anchor. Put simply, if someone was scared, there would be an active part of their brain, for the genjutsu to latch onto as a starting point.

Of course, the downsides were obvious. If Kurenai had actually worked out what was going on between the two boys and the men, any portion more or less than she did before she intervened, she would have reacted in a less helpful way.

She didn't like that fact, but it was there, taunting her; taunting her ideals and goals.

If she had looked down the street and seen just Yasha, she would have assumed he was the antagonist in that scenario, with his mistrust-inducing… factor. If she had seen just Naruto, she would have ignored it, knowing he was a prankster. One or both of them had good luck; since what actually transpired was her seeing two unidentified boys and a quick shunshin put her beside them, too close for her to second-guess herself.

She had a self-induced sour look on her face as she finished the broth, prompting Ayame to ask if her meal was alright. That of course got the brunette boy's attention and he was watching her closely the rest of the meal – it would be inconspicuous if she wasn't a jounin level and well capable of feeling the tiny amounts of KI his pupils were releasing.

The three were engaged in short conversation – Kurenai found herself agreeing to a meetup mid-morning the next day, and Naruto invited himself as well, which both attendees shrugged apathetically at. Kurenai had no hopes he would pull off genjutsu with his chakra levels. He might be able to bulk-release genjutsu, firing out a genjutsu-distorting wave or something, but she seriously doubted he would be capable of something as intricate as genjutsu weaving.

Then she realised she was assuming details about him as well, but dismissed it to experience lest she irritate herself again. Her experience and the general rule 'a chakra level requires proportional chakra control' lead her to the conclusion he'd be hopeless… at any rate, it would be clear enough tomorrow.

She dismissed the two for a night, and bumped into a large burly figure while exiting the ramen stand. So busy in her thoughts, she murmured an apology and went on her way home without attempting to see his face.

Yasha blinked and sucked in a huge lungful of air. Naruto looked at him curiously, halfway through his eighth bowl.

"Shit," Yasha muttered aloud.

"What?" Naruto hurriedly swallowed. "What now? Is something wrong?"

Yasha looked at him blankly, his thoughts clearly elsewhere. Then his eyes refocused. "Oh, sorry. No, everything's fine. It's just a stroke of good luck I wasn't expecting."

"Ohaiyo. One beef ramen," someone said as they sat beside them.

"Coming right up." Ayame smiled to the bearded smoker.

Naruto gazed the newcomer up and down curiously, (someone who didn't give him those _looks?_) but didn't recognise him.

"Hey, you two." Asuma turned his gaze to them, looking a bit star-struck. "Do you know who that lady was?"

Yasha blinked, recognising his description from the instruction scroll and absently responding. "Hai, she's Yūhi Kurenai. Why, do you want to meet her?"

"Kurenai? Wow, she's grown…" Asuma muttered absently, attempting to dredge up memories from his time before the Twelve Ninja Guardians. Then his thoughts returned and he spluttered to hide any false impression. "What… I… no, well… yes, I suppose so."

Naruto gave Yasha a questioning look, silently mouthing 'what is he doing?' Yasha's grin made the blond's head swivel back to the bearded arrival for more clues.

"I know where she'll be tomorrow, if you want to come along…" Yasha offered casually, mostly certain why Asuma had that badly-hidden expression.

Asuma coughed. "I suppose I could…"

He caught himself too late that time. He sent an alarmed look at Yasha, his mind sluggishly attempting to come up with excuses._ 'Kami, if my mind worked this badly a month back I'd be dead…'_

Yasha turned away, waving his late stuttering off. "I suppose you could come along. But you owe me."

Asuma nodded dumbly, soaking up the following time and place and completely phasing out in memories of the woman's flashing apologetic smile. When he came back to himself, his ramen was barely above lukewarm and the rest of the customers were gone.

* * *

Yasha had a wide-eyed look most of the journey home. Naruto kept sending him worried looks, but eventually ran out of patience and asked him.

"I meet a genjutsu expert and then get the son of the Hokage indebted to me, completely by chance… Naruto-kun, you're good luck."

Naruto blinked. "Nani?"

"It's obviously not me who has good luck." Yasha explained in a way that didn't explain anything. "I have a very volatile bloodline, clearly luck isn't mine. So you're good luck."

"Huh? I'm not good luck," Naruto denied quietly.

"How do you mean?" Yasha grinned happily as they ascended the stairs to the level of their apartment.

"I mean uh…" Naruto scratched the back of his head, gaze fixed on the ground. It was hard to say to Yasha, who constantly spouted compliments for him. But soon he'd realise he was a demon…. surely… The blond unlocked the door, when suddenly Yasha's arm shot in front of him.

"Stop," Yasha hissed, his tone suddenly urgent. "Something's changed."

Naruto froze just shy of the front door, stepping back hurriedly. "Changed?" He gazed at the door hard, but couldn't see anything. It looked normal.

Yasha glared at the door, pushing him away. "Right. Don't come in. Stand to the side. If there's an explosion, we're not both getting caught in it."

"An explo…" Naruto stepped back forward hurriedly to pull Yasha away and nearly got socked with a fist for his efforts.

"Stand to the side!" Yasha snapped. "I can't watch two things at once."

"But…"

Yasha pushed open the door. "Aha…" he said knowingly.

"Huh?" Naruto blinked.

"See it?"

"See what?" Naruto stared hard into the space of the ajar door. "I can't see…"

Yasha tutted. "It's right at your feet. Can't you see it?"

Naruto knelt down, squinting. Not even a bug. Oh wait, there was a hair trapped in the door that was fluttering downwards…

"It's genjutsu, then." Yasha stuck two fingers on Naruto's arm, roughly jamming some chakra in. "Kai!"

"Ow!" Naruto flailed back, and his jaw dropped as red-bordered paper appeared on the floor, right beside the doorframe.

"Two pressure-sensitive explosive notes," Yasha explained shortly. "Someone slipped them under the door, and then cast genjutsu on the floor to hide them."

Naruto could only stare in disbelief. His heel would have landed straight on top of the left one, he noted numbly. He would have lost half his leg and he dreaded what would have happened to Yasha.

Yasha's gaze was also numb, but for a different reason. _'I'm so busy coming up with my own plans and staying out of the Hokage's sight, I've put both of us in danger. Damnit.'_

The two stayed frozen for a good while, before Yasha slapped a grin onto his face, his filtering kicking in. "Well, we've got two perfectly usable explosive notes now. Get inside, and try not to step on it too much.

Naruto nodded before coming to himself. "Wait, what, you want me to go in?"

"Sure. Just don't tread on the notes. You can see them now, so you've got no excuse." Yasha smirked as he stepped around it. "That way, we've got a protection measure against any other people that want to rob us. Hold on, I'll check the other rooms for genjutsu."

The blond was left gaping again at the way the threat was turned into an advantage. "That's sneaky, Yasha-kun."

"Thanks!" Yasha responded from the kitchen.

Four sets of keen eyes watched as the Jinchūriki carefully stepped around the notes.

**_Targets in sight. Operation will begin once asleep._**

**_Use the knockout gas, check for scrolls. Watch for the trap by the door and at foot of the bed._**

* * *

**AN:** Searchin' for scrolls under cover of knockout gas. A fool-proof plan… but haven't you always wondered about why Naruto can't see anything in the bedroom when the light's out?

No? Well, you probably forgot the story mentioned it. That's the thing with spreading a story out over weeks. Haven't even hit the first main plot point. Still scheming going on by… well, nearly everyone. Even happy-go-lucky Naruto's gotten in on the scheming mindset.

There will be a timeskip, probably during next chapter, putting us halfway to the massacre date.

Review if you want me to update sooner. I'm serious about that. I'm fully self-employed with no reliable income, so technically, this is a huge time/effort sinkhole that only reviews and luv'ng can balance out. Not that I'm manipulative in any way.

Heck, I'd appreciate reviews that just show the multiple meanings the chapter title has and how it relates to the content. It'd show someone put the effort in to scrutinise my work.


	20. Discovering secrets

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 20: Discovering secrets_**

* * *

**AN: **Konbanwa. Hey, Google Chrome doesn't mark that as misspelled. Hopefully it's legit romaji then.

This chapter's kind of short at 4k. I wrote the next few chapters, specifically a month before the massacre, then a part just after. A small part of massacre day is written, and a part of graduation day and the survival test is written as well.

The team is going to invade Yasha's house now they're asleep. This should be fun, but probably not for anyone but the readers…

* * *

As soon as the ANBU positioned in the floor above heard two sets of quiet breathing and was sure they were asleep he tapped his radio piece.

"We're moving in."

The ANBU had no need to remain hand signs only – there was little chance the two would wake up. This was a fairly standard search mission: Lion would search the nearest rooms to Yasha, including the bedroom. The team of four were going to make their way through the house, carefully moving things back to the way they were after their checks. The Hokage was awaiting their success in his office.

Lion and the team used Kage Bunshin and spread out, spending less than two minutes per room. A scroll was something that couldn't be hidden that easily, so barely anything had to be moved, but they were careful to look for seals that could release a scroll and hidden areas. In ninja homes, there was almost always one hidden drawer.

The team leader was Lion, who looked at the quick headshakes of his team and frowned. Nothing. That just left the bedroom, and frankly Lion was not looking forward to that area, Kage Bunshin or not. Dismissing it, the clone opened the door, ready to step in when suddenly his skin exploded with pain, forcing him onto its knees and poofing into smoke.

_'That much feedback from just a clone?'_ Lion froze, grabbing his radio transmit button. "Withdraw!" he hissed, the team in the corridor quickly dispelling or jumping backwards, watching in shock as black gas poured out of the bedroom. The gas swirled hungrily into the full width of the corridor and beginning to move along the length, closer and closer, like a tide of water had spilled out of the door. Their flashlights, much to the team's horror, started flickering, losing their vision almost completely as they strained to see through the fog.

Then a flashlight bulb shattered and that was the last straw for the team. A final Lion ANBU clone was the only one remaining in the building, quickly retreating into the kitchen as the fog began to move past. He trained his still-working light on the door. No fog came in, but judging from the threat his sixth sense was warning him about, it was outside the door.

"Subject report status, Boar! How many people are in the room? Is Yasha still awake?"

Boar, a Byakugan user, sounded frustrated as he admitted it. "Can't see past the fog, sir."

"Cat!" the leader barked immediately, shoving his surprise away.

Cat focused chakra to his ears, resuming his position on the floor above with some trepidation. "I can make out two heartbeats. Both seem asleep."

"They're sleeping in that?!" Lion's clone said in shock.

The real Lion suppressed the urge to tell himself off for misusing the radio. That was no doubt going to come up later. "Lion B, report."

"I've retreated to the kitchen, it hasn't followed me in, but I can sense it in the corridor."

"Boar, confirm?"

"Confirmed. It's in the corridors and the bedroom, can't see anything in either."

"Is Uzumaki in danger?"

Cat reported again. "Unconfirmed, sir. He's unconscious in the bedroom, for whatever reason. Heart rates for both are steady and slow."

_'Stall until one potentially died, or move in early and attempt to get them out the insect swarms?'_ Lion racked his brains rapidly. "Lion B, drop the lighting. See if it attacks."

"Boar here. It's coming into the kitchen, slowly."

The leader nodded. He had hoped, from the way his lights flickered… "Lion B, light again."

Boar's deep voice reported again, a note of relief. "Boar. They're sensitive to light."

"You guys have flares? We're going for Uzumaki. Boar, drop knockout gas in there on my mark, and check the bedroom, report if the gas is attacking. Jackal, watch for thirds. Cat, Bird, enter through the front door and work to the bedroom. Flare the whole length, keep the whole thing lit. Use clones. …Mark."

Cat stepped in front of the door, hearing a small metallic thudding sound before a vaguely louder hiss of releasing gas. He screwed his eyes shut and ripped open the front door, firing a flare and leaping over the notes, rolling, his eyes stabbing painfully as the ball of fire flew into the hallway. Another flare went past, a third, then they were at the bedroom doorway. It was full of sleeping gas, and both targets were coughing.

Grabbing the blond, he made to dive straight to the window, before his skin burned and he poofed out of existence.

Eight clones in total flooded the bedroom with flares and their combined efforts got Naruto out of the window with both boys very awake from the fact their house was now on fire. A spare flare even launched out of the window, much to Lion's horror, and he had to deflect it with a quick shuriken before the entire ninja population of Konoha turned up to assist in the covert op.

Cat and Jackal rapidly left while Yasha stumbled around in the aftereffects of blinding gas, pitch-black darkness, and unsuspected awakening and did a tactical withdrawal with the blond while Boar's clones started going through his furniture.

"Naruto! What the fuck did you do with Naruto?!" Yasha shrieked, KI exploding and all Lion's attempts to keep the thing covert were in the toilet as most of the ninja city of Konoha woke to find they couldn't breathe.

At least for a second before the nearest clone managed to hold on long enough to knock him out with a solid punch.

* * *

Yasha woke up with his head pounding. He blinked and turned to look beside him, where Naruto was snoring. Some sort of nightmare? He couldn't remember the last time he had a nightmare. Particularly one that so vividly burnt his retinas with bright lights.

He glared at the alarm clock (five minutes until alarm time) and turned the alarm off. Screw it. He didn't know why his head was pounding but he wasn't going to the Academy today if Iruka turned up on his doorstep.

He shut his eyes, they were painful, and tried to think without waking himself up. _'I distinctly remembered Naruto being taken from me last night… but it couldn't be genjutsu… zzz…'_

* * *

It was the first time Lion had repainted a room since he was a genin. His team had only a few hours to track down the make of the carpet, wall and ceiling for the hallway and bedroom, and recreate the whole two rooms, then disguise the scent of carbon and smoke trails left by the trails. On the plus side, Lion could report with certainty that there was nothing hidden under the carpet.

**_'Screw the plus side!'_** Lion thought vehemently, teeth almost grinding behind his mask. This was the most visible failure of an ANBU mission in the history of Konoha. Hell, in the history of ANBU in the entire Nations. And he was the leader of the mission. Good thing ANBU was an off-the-books occupation or he'd probably be demoted to the Genin Corps…

The Third had turned up at the scene from the KI blast and taken just the quickest summary with gritted teeth and a barely-suppressed grimace. The unfortunate ANBU had sweated for a few seconds before he was ordered to cover up, with his team's careers on the line. Boar had been particularly pissed about that, since he was only on the mission squad as a one-off and had an immaculate record befitting of a Hyuuga.

Nonetheless, they weren't ANBU rank for nothing and the house looked the same as before they entered (albeit the paint looked newer). Lion and his team were watching, hoping Yasha wouldn't notice the small changes. Once they were sure, Lion would have the _fun_ task of being debriefed by the Hokage and the full elder council – the old advisors were _not_ impressed by their rude awakening in the middle of the night.

The ever-dutiful and patient Cat hadn't said a single word about his squad leader, although he had complained a couple of times about how his eyes were still discoloured from flare damage. He had tiger summons, and sensitive eyes and ears to match.

Boar spent the whole time silent, and just coldly stated he wasn't taking any more missions headed by Lion any time soon. He was one of only two ANBU with Byakugan, and being how obvious the failure was, Lion was fairly certain the other Hyuuga wouldn't be joining him either.

If _anyone_ would want to be on his team. Shit.

Yasha was, for better or worse, going to be late to the Academy. Hopefully, it'd make him less observant and he'd blast his way through the house while subconsciously dismissing the changes? Lion could only hope.

The last member of his team had the most surprising reaction: he seemed highly amused. One minute he was a cold-hearted and stoic prodigy, the next he was trying to stop sniggering. Still, Itachi was young, prodigy or no, and this was probably the best chance for laughter…

But Lion was adamant that _he_ himself wasn't even going to consider the humour until he knew the extent of the punishment. He ran his report through his head, revising to colour it the best way the Council would receive it. Despite the fact he'd been doing it for the better part of eight hours, he was still worried.

At least the team didn't have to worry. Even if Lion had made two giant mistakes in the spur of the moment and to protect the Jinchūriki, the team had only followed orders and couldn't receive the blame. Plus, his actions were logical enough.

Of course, for the Uchiha and Hyuuga, any sort of failure was unacceptable – and this one had failed so publically they would probably be receiving some sort of repercussion from their respective clans. The funny thing was, the clan elders shouldn't really know about what ANBU did; not even their own ANBU. But somehow, Lion was fairly certain this particular failure's consequences would be unavoidable. Boar seemed to think so.

Not that Itachi seemed bothered. He was one of three Uchiha in ANBU and only one out of five ANBU with Sharingan. The elder advisers respected him a lot and he was often on the Hokage's guard squad, no mean achievement. His place as prodigy, and position in ANBU, was as secure as could be.

Lion had heard rumours that the Uchiha were planning something. Then again, he had heard those rumours four years ago… and for some reason they stopped, and the Uchiha calmed down. _'Come to think of it, wasn't that the same time as Itachi went on the Hokage's guard duty? Hopefully they'll just calm down again.'_

Naruto snored rather loudly and turned over, murmuring something incoherent. Probably to do with ramen. Lion idly noted that the alarm clock was not going to go off and they were going to be late in about forty minutes.

Now that he thought about it, what would happen if one of their teachers or classmates decided to go get them and stepped on the explosive notes inside the door? Gah, he'll have to interfere again. That would make it the third time Yasha made him blow his cover, all in the space of a week.

If he laughed now, it would be hysterical laughter before he dropped all his explosive notes into that cursed boy's bedroom. He wasn't sure if he'd regret it later.

* * *

Naruto turned over, bright sunlight hitting his eyes. Something didn't seem right about that sun. He covered his eyes and blinked with rheumy eyes at the position of the sun, distantly noting it was too high. He turned to his alarm clock and promptly fell off the bed, dragging the sheets with him and waking Yasha with a start.

"Itai…" he mumbled, still not sure what was going on. _'Aren't I late? No, it's Sunday… isn't it? Man, I feel tired.'_

Yawning blearily, he attempted to stand up but had to detangle himself from the sheets first. When he did, he checked the calendar Yasha had bought before concluding it wasn't a reliable source of what day it was.

It was a good two hours after Academy start time, anyway. His gaze drifted to the hand signs textbook and he suddenly realised that he had gotten ramen because he had memorised all of them… over the whole weekend… which meant that the whole weekend had passed… which meant it was Monday… which meant…

His breath quickened. _"YASHA, WAKE UP! WE'RE LATE, DATTEBAYO!" _he screeched, diving towards his clothes and nearly falling onto the broken glass. He did a double-take… it looked like it was a different pattern to how he remembered… _'Did Yasha step on it yesterday? …Whatever! I don't want Iruka-sensei on my case!'_

Yasha spun and reached for the covers that had been pulled away from Naruto's movement. His voice was lazy and dismissive. "Shuddup… go and be late by yourself…"

"What?! You're late too, dattebayo!" Naruto insisted, grabbing his spare change of clothes and hurriedly dressing.

The brunette pulled the cover back over him and laid down with a relieved sigh, "Nahhh, I'm absent, not late…" he murmured.

Naruto blinked and his dressing motions paused while he thought, but unfortunately he was balanced on one leg and pausing made him fall over. "Damnit! Get up, Yasha-baka!"

"You pronounced 'sama' wrong," Yasha corrected, still sounding very asleep.

Naruto finished getting dressed and starting shaking his friend. "Wake up!"

"Make me. No," Yasha hastily revised as the shaking intensified, "Better yet, don't make me. Go away or I'll call you Naruto-chan for the next year."

Naruto didn't hear the keyword, so he responded hotly. "I don't care what you call me!"

"Okay, Naruto-chan." Yasha rubbed at his face, knowing Naruto's personality too well. He might give up, but only if Yasha acted _super_-tired, and after that nightmare Yasha didn't want to let him leave for school on his own. It just seemed like a bad omen.

"You okay, Yasha-kun?" Naruto stuck his face a few inches away, staring at him worriedly.

Yasha scowled at him, a palm of one hand on his forehead, choosing not to shake his head. "No, my head's pounding pretty hard… but I'll come to the Academy with you anyway."

Naruto reversed tact and pushed him back down onto the bed. "Can't you regenerate first?"

Yasha looked around and shrugged. "Might as well _try_ it…"

The ANBU squad tensed as Yasha flared his chakra experimentally, but no darkness started flooding. The brunette shrugged slightly after a few seconds of flaring, as a bruise he didn't notice healed up. "It's still pounding, but not as bad. Let's go."

"Don't you need to get dressed…" Naruto trailed off as he realised Yasha hadn't changed into pyjamas last night. "Let's go, then!"

Yasha slouched his way out of bed, his keen eye catching the rearranged glass but not the slightly newer wall colour. He couldn't shake the bad atmosphere. It was like that last time – that feeling of wrongness he felt when explosive notes had been slipped under the door. Speaking of which, "Don't forget the explosive notes, Naruto-chan."

Naruto froze. He _had_ completely forgotten. "I won't!" he responded cheerfully. "And don't call me chan at school."

"Sure, Hokage-chan."

"Oi!"

Playfully bickering, Naruto let Yasha lead and followed his slow pace to the front door. The explosive notes were undisturbed. "Something wrong?"

"I'm not sure…" Yasha checked the front door carefully, awkwardly squatting with one leg past the explosive notes. A slowly growing chill went up his spine as he went over the frame a second time. "…Someone's been in here."

Naruto jumped and turned, analysing the rooms rapidly. "How do you know that?!"

The ANBU team looked at each other, all silently shrugging.

"I trapped a hair in the frame. It's been blown out. Someone's stepped in the doorway."

Naruto stepped closer to the door, analysing it critically. "I could've done that coming in last night."

"No, you came in before me, but I set it up before I went to bed… I think…" Yasha wasn't sure any more.

The ANBU team looked at each other in disbelief. A hair in the door? That was a level of experienced strategy they would expect from experienced jounin. Unknowingly, Cat had covered up the mistake by slipping the door open literally a hair's width extra when he closed it – but none of the people there would ever realise that.

Naruto felt the side of the door. "Well, I can feel the draft. It could've just been blown away."

"I guess…" Yasha tried to shove the returning pounding away. The fear had induced adrenaline, covering it up, but now it was back at full force.

"Let's go!"

"Got your key?"

Naruto blinked. "Oops." He spun around and ran back to the bedroom.

* * *

"So, Lion. Report." The Hokage ordered as he cradled his tea.

The elders were all but scowling at the ANBU who had nearly flung the village into a state of panic.

"Hai," the ANBU reported calmly, thankful he did not have to remove his mask. "The team entered Yasha's residence at 0130 hours. Using Kage Bunshin, we searched all rooms bar the bedroom and found no scrolls. At this point, I had a clone open the bedroom door.

"What appeared to be black gas destroyed the clone almost immediately, and flowed down the corridor. I ordered the team's retreat and my last clone analysed the fog before stepping into the kitchen.

"We concluded the fog, as we know to be very large swarms of very small insects, was sensitive to light, owing to my clone using its flashlight and Boar confirming with the insects' movement with his Byakugan. He was unable to see past the insects, but confirmed the whole hallway and bedroom was full of the fog. Cat was ordered to report on the status of the two in the bedroom, and using hearing determined they were unconscious.

"Fearing the safety of Uzumaki, we moved to take him out of the hostile fog." Danzō and the Third looked a bit less twitchy at that. "Boar deployed sleeping gas and remained on the floor above, observing. At the same time, Cat and I moved through the hallway using Kage Bunshin again, while using multiple flares, and we entered the bedroom and attempted to remove Uzumaki. Both were semi-conscious upon entry despite the gas, and several clones were dispelled by the insects before we successfully retrieved Uzumaki.

"At this point Yasha was pinned down and started yelling, and released significant KI. The clone nearest, which was Cat, knocked him out. The clones remaining in the bedroom searched the room while the insects could no longer be found. No scrolls bar the three were found.

"The team then received new orders from the Hokage at 0145 hours and covered up the fire damage caused by the use of flares until 0530. Yasha and Uzumaki woke at 0932 and left at 0944, acknowledging someone had entered the building due to a high-jounin level detector, but none noticed the repaired damage and appeared to believe what they experienced during the night was just a dream."

"What is the nature of this detector?" Danzō asked thoughtfully. He had heard about Yasha and his rather dark nature. Not to mention his ability to manipulate, his inability to be manipulated by someone else and his intelligence.

Lion felt a bit of relief. "A hair trapped in the front door. I believe Yasha planted it as Uzumaki was not aware of it. There was obviously no chakra presence from it and it was considerably hard to detect. Yasha has additionally placed two high level pressure explosive notes just by the front door, and left broken glass in the bedroom, which for obvious reasons we found difficult to replicate the positioning of."

Danzō and Hiruzen exchanged surprised glances. Danzō rubbed his chin thoughtfully, his eye glinting with silent calculation, but didn't say anything else. Hiruzen sighed deeply. "You considered the fog to be hostile?"

"Hai. It was attacking the clones violently, so we considered it to be such. Non-clones may take longer to be attacked, judging from experience during the last time Yasha um… lost control… in the Hokage tower. As the two in the bedroom were not clones… or specifically, Uzumaki wasn't… we deemed him to be in danger."

Danzō's gaze narrowed and the Third Hokage looked even more tired. "So the insects leave his body when he's unconscious and the environment is dark…"

The other two elders remained silent. Danzō normally played aggressive and Hiruzen passive, and in this case bar the jarring wake-up call for most of Konoha, no damage was done.

Hiruzen shot Danzō a glance, before speaking. "I appreciate there was good reason behind the moving in, and the primary objective was completed. I will be docking the payment for repairing the building from your pay, but otherwise your performance was as most people could have expected."

"Yasha is a slippery character," Danzō agreed, an emotion filtering into his voice that made Hiruzen scowl a warning at him.

"Lion, dismissed," the Hokage ordered, and the man left to heave huge sighs of relief outside, almost unable to believe his luck.

Koharu nodded. "We should endeavour to make sure this sort of KI pulse is not felt again. It's particularly disturbing to members of Konoha and interrupts the peace."

Homura spoke up next. "Not to mention, enemy spies would have no trouble identifying the cause. If Yasha is indeed to become a ninja of Konoha, and is a prodigy as suggested, his presence should be concealed as best as is possible."

"That would be problematic," Danzō said to point out the obvious. "I understand we should be placing a ANBU watch squad on Yasha and the Jinchūriki?"

The Third shook his head. "I have an arrangement with him. _Not_ to be discussed."

"Really, Hiruzen?" Danzō turned with a small smirk, but still curious. "I would think an outsider, particularly one as… _volatile_ as Yasha, around the Jinchūriki, would require at least a watch."

"He has unique circumstances, which I will not be discussing. Besides, his relationship to _Naruto_ remains a binding factor to the village, and his loyalty is something I have been assured of due to it."

"I see," Danzō replied, and said nothing more on the topic. The meeting was closed soon after.

* * *

Bird came across a recuperating Lion with a smirk. "Having difficulties, Lion?"

The man turned, sat in the ANBU HQ, out of his armour bar his mask, but still an intimidatingly muscled figure. "You damn well know it." He turned back to the blackboard, reading the Yasha quote list, mostly out of irony. "I need leave for at least a week after that shit. Had the whole damn elder council glaring at me."

Bird leaned on the wall by the blackboard. "How's the verdict?"

"Just docking my pay for the repairs. Still a C-Rank at best, bar the unexpected fallout, so that'll be most of the pay gone."

Itachi smiled slightly. "That's pretty light."

Lion sighed. "I know. I don't know what they're thinking, but I guess it wasn't that important to keep it covert to Konoha. Probably just meant to be covert to the targets, and they're mostly oblivious. They're still kids, even if the KI alarm clock is one scary son of a bitch."

The Uchiha prodigy hummed. "I suppose that makes sense."

His tone was a bit too playful. Lion shot him a look. "You've heard something."

Bird tossed him a scroll and by protocol they checked the environment for listeners before Lion opened it. Bird summed it up though: "Our next mission is now. Us two are going to scroll-hunt in the orphanage instead."

"…the orphanage?!" Lion repeated, feeling a bit light-headed.

"Hopefully you can handle this level of mission without a mistake. It's a C-Rank after all…" Itachi smirked behind his mask.

"Fuck you, Bird."

* * *

The two moved quickly in the small room, the hallways and the dorm. Thankfully, Bird was well capable with genjutsu and any kids that weren't in school had a few minutes' extra sleep that day.

"Nothing in the dorm. Or in the halls," Lion reported, shrugging.

"Bedroom looks clean too," Bird replied, seeming thoughtful.

"I'm not sure. The target is on a jounin level." Lion reminded him.

"I'll go over it again, then." Bird shrugged. "Feels like I missed something, but it's only two by three."

Lion accompanied him and the burly and skinny figures crouched in the room, carefully tapping the walls and floors. Lion noticed something fairly obvious: "They haven't cleaned up in here during the last week. Notice the blood splatter?"

"Looks like he flicked it somehow." Bird nodded, keen eyes analysing the splatters. "You were on the team that followed him?"

"He did the KI pulse from here. I was on nights," Lion shared, tapping the walls carefully. Being on the night patrols was common as dirt missions, hardly secret to anyone in ANBU. "Tracked him the whole way."

"I see," Itachi responded. He activated his Sharingan and stared over the room, pacing very slowly above the floorboards. His eye caught something underneath. Very faint traces of chakra beneath the wood; if he was at all hurried, he would have missed it. "Something under the floor here."

The two turned their attention to the planks, shuffling them around to look for loose ones. Pretty much all of them were loose, so they had to pull them up individually.

A grin crossed Lion's face as he held up the two scrolls. "Bingo!"

"Mission accomplished… what's on them?" Itachi asked, eyes catching his partner's.

"Dunno," Lion responded, not feeling the subtle genjutsu force him to say the truth. "The Hokage wants me checking for them. Something to do with the KI alarm clock…"

Itachi caught the burly man with difficulty and placed him on the ground, plucking the scrolls from his hands. He pulled one open and frowned at the summoning seal, then twisted open the other.

"Oh." Itachi analysed the scroll with a small smile. "You _clever_ boy, Yasha."

* * *

**AN:** Oh indeed…_ Oh shiiii…_

What has he seen? Will he share with the Hokage? The plot thickens! …like milk going bad.

Itachi hasn't killed off anyone yet, and he still thinks the Hokage is going to be capable of peacefully solving it, so although he's tense, he's not cold/stoic/uncaring/murderously-killing-his-emotions tense. But he's still clever.  
Unfortunately for our favourite Lion ANBU, you can't even let down your guard on a C-Rank with fellow ANBU. Not even if you're suffering from cripplingly large amounts of relief.

Danzō's finally reared his ugly (bandaged) head. And he seems to think Yasha needs watching by ANBU. I wonder if Root will turn up?  
:P if you have to ask, you don't know Danzō very well.

Thanks for the long review, "Anonymouse". I'm not too proud to say I read that review a multiple times. It was a big motivator, although I don't expect another one of that length any time soon.

All you other folks, shame on you and your favourite brand of chocolate. Review harder! Review like you've never reviewed before!

…Although I'll be honest… I don't review a lot. I tend to slam out one big thoughtful message per story then go MIA for ten or so chapters. But still… shame on thou. I'll sic Danzō on yo asses. Bandages flappin' everywhere. It'll be huge, it'll be gross, and it'll be on Youtube.


	21. Jutsu headaches

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 21: Jutsu headaches_**

* * *

**AN:** Howdy folks.

My chair broke! I don't even know how that happened. It lasted just shy of two years, but the undercarriage eventually tore. Metal, tearing. That takes some doing.

I'm not even fat. Shut up, you.

Luckily, I have two lovely young twin sisters who insist on climbing all over my chair for some lovin', just so it has the extra weight. Since they're still small enough to be kawaii, I let 'em, until I boot them off so I can do some coding/fanfic'ng. Leaning kids on the arms of your chair apparently makes it unhappy. Who'd have thought?

Have you read the fanfic 'Of the River and the Sea', ID 10996503? Excellent stuff there, emotional portrayal and realism is great. Still being continued, too, was updated last week. UPDATE: It's finished!

Bet I got you with the ending of the last chapter. Timeskip after this one, though, which is why this one's quite short. I had to flesh out Kurenai's meeting, since you can't really ignore it when she'll be giving Yasha genjutsu lessons (assuming he passes the test).  
Under a mission, though, she can't stick around for the next month. This is another way of me saying 'I wrote the timeskip part without Kurenai and it's effort to add her back in'. I'm not one of those people in love with Kurenai, though. I'm not particularly in love with any character, because I'm asexual. Sex bores me; it's just a way to lose control to animalistic hormones. I can find things cute, but not sexy.  
I detest modern society's view of it as a casual thing. It's of stuff like this paedophiles are born. But that's a story for another day…

Let the wtf'ng over the scrolls begin!

* * *

Itachi's small smile grew as he saw the interwoven seal. Blood and chakra protection seals forming a barrier over all the written words. The scroll was useless to anyone but Yasha. Any fuuinjutsu-knowledgeable person could try his hand at cracking it, but there was an incendiary failsafe as well; removing the seal caused a huge burst of fire-nature chakra to erupt from it.

A failsafe was difficult to work around; and that raised the cracking level to sealing experts only – wrapping a water-chakra seal around the failsafe while they released it.

Itachi was no expert on seals, but as ANBU, he knew how to read them. This was a simple scroll, deceptively simple. A failsafe in plain sight was just unusual.

And he was no way capable of calculating the exact figures a water chakra seal would need. Too much and the ink-laden scroll would be soaked. Too little and it'd be in flames. And a hidden failsafe was another very likely possibility.

The summoning scroll, being powerful, was more interesting. It read the kanji for 'Darkness' in the centre. That was a regular ink label, glued over the real chakra-written kanji. Under Itachi's Sharingan, he could see the real chakra-enhanced ink – the kanji was 'Person'.

One destination seal, blood-based, and one source seal, blood-based. A person could be summoned, by one other person. Itachi analysed the blood handprint in the Source seal, but it held no clues; a child's handprint, possibly Yasha's.

Summoning seals had no way to be worked around; only one kind of chakra would work, and an undo wouldn't activate the scroll. If you wanted to use a creature, you had to find the master scroll and add yourself to it.

This was a single-use scroll, like all Person summons. A person summon had no master and only worked once. If you unsealed the source person's blood from it, the person who was meant to use it, the summoned person's chakra would be released as well, making the scroll empty.

Itachi frowned down at the bloody child's handprint… a child? What child would be able to summon this person?

He blinked at he recalled Uzumaki Naruto, and Yasha's reaction to him being out of sight earlier. Possibly it was set to Naruto.

The other scroll, hidden behind a chakra seal, was a chakra loop design: it could be used more than once, clearly the scroll could be read more than once. Thus, it could be cracked.

Tapping the chakra-hidden scroll with his fingers thoughtfully, as he knelt by an unconscious Lion, he wondered whether he should give this scroll to the Hokage immediately. On the off chance Jiraiya or the Third could break into it, it was likely it held details of the Uchiha… not going to be a surprise for the Hokage, but he wasn't sure what it contained exactly. Maybe he should confront Yasha first, wave it around a little and see if he let some secrets out.

He was a loyal member of Konoha, but Yasha's recommendations had been to slaughter the coup-desiring Uchiha, and this scroll probably held all the reasoning for that. Itachi's tapping paused and his frown deepened. He wanted to know what Yasha knew, and he didn't want a recommendation for slaughter hitting the Hokage's desk.

But… his eyes trailed over the scroll and noticed a buffer-capacitor connection, and he mumbled a curse. An anti-duplication capacitor. That meant you couldn't hold the scroll, use Kage Bunshin, and then have a cloned scroll you could attempt to crack open. The buffer had a certain level of chakra, and the capacitor functioned by measuring that amount of chakra.

If the capacitor was anything but full, it would fail; so cloning yourself into half-chakra like a Kage Bunshin would make both scrolls unreadable, since the buffer would be half-full on both of the two. It would go back to working once the Bunshin dispelled and the original scroll received its chakra back.

He mumbled a curse and gave up on the idea. He didn't have time to sneak off to Yasha and confront him, and a cloned scroll would be unreadable even if Yasha attempted to read it, with a half-full capacitor. So he had to have the only copy.

The alternative was to give the cloned scroll to the Hokage, then confront Yasha with the original, then dispel the Bunshin, giving Yasha a readable scroll, but unfortunately dispelling the Hokage's, making it blatantly obvious he was working outside of his mission objectives. And if the Third Hokage grew suspicious of him, the entire chance of a peaceful outcome would be negated.

He sighed, reaching out to the genjutsu link he had to Lion, tweaking it and making him stand up before it expired.

The man turned and looked a bit dazed for a few seconds. Itachi hid a smirk as he pretended to have noticed nothing. His genjutsu was some of the best, even among the Uchiha; if Lion hadn't detected its entry he was going to remain oblivious.

* * *

"Hokage-sama, we found two scrolls," Lion reported, the faintest twinge of triumph in his tone. He was going to save face, finally.

The Third nearly jumped to his feet as the ANBU laid them on his desk. His worn eyes drifted hungrily over the two inconspicuous scrolls. Dismissing Lion, he unravelled one and frowned at it. Seemingly blank, but he could feel the throbbing of passive chakra underneath it.

He pulled out the other one, and the frown reappeared. "Summoning for Darkness…?" he muttered to himself. He gestured to Itachi, and Itachi dutifully explained what he saw on the seemingly blank scroll, as well as that it was a Person summon.

The Third Hokage frowned, and had Itachi sketch out the scroll's hidden chakra seal entirely on a blank scroll. He analysed the copy very finely. It was a simple seal, and that was worrying. It held a buffer sub-seal, which contained solid chakra; it was common practice to hide a small failsafe seal in a layer behind it, as even the Sharingan couldn't detect it past the solid buffer chakra, and Byakugan had a hard time.

He sat back with a sigh, tapping his lip thoughtfully. He had to drag a Hyuuga in here, and it would become obvious there was something odd going on, that the Sandaime would be reading scrolls meant for other people. If there was no other layers and he did crack it, the Hyuuga had to be out of eyesight when that happened – the last thing he wanted was the doujutsu rival of the Uchiha to have something tangible against the Uchiha. They'd be only too happy to start their own civil war against the Uchiha if they had evidence.

He tapped the Darkness/Person scroll as he mused. That one couldn't be cracked. Any attempt would just ruin the scroll entirely; the chakra for the Person seal would just dissipate into the air. There was no chance of it working without the source blood; although you would see the chakra dissipate in the direction of the Person, attempting to return to them, that wouldn't tell you much unless they were within hand's reach of the scroll and you had a Sharingan or Byakugan to observe it.

The mixture of ink and chakra could be done on a ratio that hid the chakra, hiding the identity of the Person being summoned, and that was what the most common practice was.

It was also rather likely the non-summon scroll was highly advanced. If someone was messing about with genjutsu mind seals, it was akin to brain surgery – the margin for mistakes was almost non-existent if you wanted the person to be functioning properly. Personality, balance, hearing, senses, chakra flow, memory, speech… anything could be screwed up with a slightest mistake of a few millimetres.

If the sponsor had placed it on Yasha, he was most likely a seal expert. And they could make very tricky, multi-layered seals; and blowing itself up was one of the easiest things you could get a scroll to do. That was how explosive seals were so widespread; you screwed up a line a bit, you ended up with a slightly distorted explosion radius, or slightly milder than usual; who was inspecting that closely?

Self-destruction was easy too. Just store a little chakra of one of the elements in the seal as a buffer, and when released, the paper would react the same way as regular chakra paper (the type shinobi used to test their affinity).

To just destroy the paper, you would use Earth or Water; Earth would dissolve the paper into dirt and dust, and Water would render it soaking wet, both harmless to whoever held it.

Wind and Fire was used to attack the holder and the paper; Wind would shear it (and nearby hands) into pieces, and Fire would burn the paper to smoke while burning the hands of who held it.

Lightning was the one to use if you wanted the scroll to attack whoever was nearby, but not destroy itself. The paper would crinkle but remain readable.

And finally, you could have a sub-seal drain the chakra holding the hidden message, by having an empty buffer that you switched open.

Yes… fuuinjutsu was not a skill easily mastered. More often than not, fuuinjutsu users would focus on a particular branch – mind seals, explosive seals, summoning seals – so they could draw them rapidly, in time-critical moments, e.g. on the battlefield. They specialised because they could then add locks and levers around it, customise it to certain blast radiuses, a certain named animal to be summoned, control a person's mind a certain way…

No one _fiddled_ with genjutsu seals. You had to be deadly serious and have either a very experienced teacher, or a shedload of test subjects who didn't/couldn't object to going insane. Even Yamanaka couldn't repair some of the damage that faulty seals had made.

If Yasha truly had a genjutsu seal, it would be stupid to think this scroll's seal was as simple as just the layer Itachi could see.

The Hokage rubbed at his face tiredly. "Get me a Hyuuga."

Itachi gave a curt, "Hai, Hokage-sama," and vanished.

* * *

The Hyuuga chuunin blinked at the scroll, veins bulging. "It seems to be a summoning seal behind the buffer seal."

The Hokage nearly dropped his pipe again. "A summoning?!"

"The label reads 'Shinigami', and is chakra-enforced…" the Hyuuga's voice trailed off as a frown crossed both their faces – the chuunin at what it said, and the Hokage from his sealing knowledge: the Shinigami could be summoned? If the label was chakra-enforced, that meant the thing being summoned answered to 'Shinigami'; a false name would cause the summon to fail.

There was only the real Death God mentioned in the Shiki Fūjin, and a legend walking around during the Third Shinobi War, who would answer to that name…

Either one was beyond Kage-level… what would the real Shinigami do when summoned? Or the legend, if it was that monster? The Hokage had no idea. But he knew whoever wrote this scroll was pretty much suicidal for adding that part in there.

"Are there any more layers?" He asked, a bit paler than normal.

The Hyuuga analysed it again, squinting to see past the solid chakra ink to another layer of chakra ink. "No, just the extra Summon seal behind the buffer. It had no chakra source, anyone can activate it, but it looks like it bypasses the buffer itself, and won't damage it…" The chuunin was scraping the edges of his sealing knowledge here. The Hyuuga branch clan weren't allowed to read too much fuuinjutsu.

So if he tried to break into it, something or someone answering to Shinigami would be summoned assuming he got past the fire failsafe, which the Third was fairly confident he could do. During the Wars, he had to work around that sort of thing several times.

Working around a summon was near-impossible, without some chakra ink made of the chakra of whatever you were summoning. But if the summon was triggered, the scroll would become readable anyway, assuming the summon didn't pick up the scroll and destroy it.

So, he had a summon scroll keyed to a source person he didn't know, which summoned Someone he didn't know, and another scroll that was keyed to Yasha and summoned the damn _Shinigami_ if someone other than Yasha put their chakra in and bypassed the burn-to-bits failsafe.

Assuming they got past whatever the Shinigami was, the scroll would then be fully readable to anyone. But could he get past it? In Shiki Fūjin it was a deliberate suicide to go near the Shinigami. _Worse_ than suicide, even – your soul couldn't rest with its kin. Kami-sama knew how whoever wrote the seal had acquired the chakra for a Shinigami, much less what the entity would do once it arrived. 'Slay everyone in sight' seemed likely.

"Thank you. You're dismissed," he informed the Hyuuga, who blinked in realisation. He deactivated his doujutsu, bowed curtly and walked out, while shooting a look at the ANBU he had just noticed was an Uchiha.

Itachi didn't react to it, naturally, kneeling on one knee stiffly.

The Sandaime tapped the scroll again, making up his mind. "Get me Uzumaki Naruto."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Itachi replied, taking the two paper-bound irritants and vanishing.

The Third needed time to think about whether it was worth risking the life of whoever broke into it – which would have to be a fuuinjutsu user capable of writing the counter-seal – or if the seal was truly just too risky to be around. But maybe Naruto did know something about the summoning, if he was the source person as Hiruzen suspected.

The date Shikaku had estimated the coup was, in Yasha's opinion, was in a week. Meanwhile, Yasha was without a guard…

* * *

"Kurenai-san!" Naruto whooped, waving his arm enthusiastically.

The jounin turned around with a ready smile, which faltered and slid off her face as she wondered why there were three people instead of one. She blinked at the jounin accompanying them. _'Isn't that Asuma? …What exactly is this turning into?'_

She shot a look at Yasha, who was failing to hide a smirk. She could feel herself getting tense and defences coming back up at the scenario already.

"I only offered to teach one of you," she reminded the brunette as he got within conversational range.

Naruto pouted at her. "But-"

Yasha covered the blond's mouth, nodding. "We're gonna have a spar-off. Naruto would just pester both of us otherwise."

Ignoring Naruto's muffled 'Oi!' she nodded. "And Asuma?" She shot him a look and he looked away rapidly, making her blink confusedly.

"He's just babysitting." Yasha nodded at her and the blond shot him a questioning look, wondering why he would make that up and why something that so obviously degraded Yasha himself. "So we don't knock each other out with chakra exhaustion."

Asuma gave a half-hearted wave to Kurenai and wandered to the sidelines, avoiding eye contact with the other jounin. After about half a minute of staring blankly after him, still not sure why he was there but fairly certain she was missing something, she dismissed him and turned to her two charges, motioning for them to continue.

Yasha turned to the Jinchūriki, laying the trap. "Well, Naruto, do your seals for genjutsu."

Naruto blinked at him. "There's seals?"

Kurenai facepalmed, stifling a groan.

* * *

Naruto used up all five of his tries in about an hour and begged another two out of Kurenai despite her best efforts to avoid puppy-eyes.

"Okay, go." Kurenai tensed for his seventh attempt. Normally, one wouldn't tense for genjutsu, but now her body was reacting on automatic.

"Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu!" he flipped through the seals and shot the chakra at her.

'Shot the chakra' was correct. Feeling something akin to a bomb blast smack roughly into the chakra of most of her upper body, jarring her thoughts, she shook her head violently to clear it. "No, no, no! Still far, far, _far_ too much chakra! Naruto, I'm sorry, but I'm _done _with you."

"Just one more try!" Naruto pleaded. "I'll get it next time, dattebayo!"

"No!" She tried not to sound snappish, but a mass amount of chakra hitting your brain, multiple times, was not something pleasant. There was going to be a headache later, she knew it.

She covered her eyes to avoid his begging expression and rattled off her reasons. "You have far too much chakra in your pulse, and even if you could sort that out, you have no focus with your technique! You're putting in about forty times as much chakra as you need and your aim is terrible! And there's far too much Yang chakra! There's _nothing_ good about your attempts at all!"

She uncovered her eyes to see him gritting his teeth, flinching with his hands screwed up into fists. _'He's taken it hard,'_ she noted, unsure if she should reduce the damage or be happy he wasn't still pleading. She ran back over what she had said – it wasn't wrong, and although she was angry, she hadn't let that affect her statement. No, she wasn't going to revise it or apologise for it.

Yasha gave her a frown, but she gave him a weary look. He seemed to understand anyway. She waved him on tiredly. "Yasha, your turn."

The brunette sighed faux-dramatically, fluffing Naruto's hair to catch his attention, and going through the three seals carefully. "Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu," he muttered.

_'Weird, he seems unenthusiastic…'_ The scene distorted, making her start. She hadn't even felt the chakra, and that came with only the best chakra control and pure Yin. Not to mention a lot of practice.

Twenty leaves flying up, the wavering of the real scene around her all too obvious behind the gaps in the leaves. She ignored it temporarily and focused as the leaves cleared, revealing a vaguely recognisable person who looked vaguely injured. She knew who it was – she had a lot of experience with this D-Rank genjutsu, after all. The voice begging for help was completely off.

She used Kai, a mixed opinion forming. "Yasha, that's pretty poor rendering. The voice is off, the appearance of the person is off, and the number of leaves is way too low…" Yasha nodded, frowning slightly as she continued, "The entry into my chakra was fine, though, and the aim was fine. I can imagine that your chakra control and you used complete Yin, so that just remains on focusing on what exactly you're generating. Once you've done it perfectly in a peaceful scenario, you'll be able to reproduce it perfectly whenever you want, with minimal focus, on the battlefield as well… although I should warn you it won't incapacitate most targets."

"What was wrong with my one?" Naruto asked barely above a mutter, a bit downcast.

Yasha quickly spoke before the jounin repeated her list of reasons. He knew what the blond would need to hear. "Naruto-kun, a genjutsu is designed to confuse or horrify your opponent. That one you just tried to do makes your closest friend or relative appear to be dying in front of you. It's not something I can imagine you using anyway."

Naruto looked downright shocked at what they were doing. "People fight like _that?!"_

"Shinobi fight with much more disturbing genjutsu than that," Kurenai reassured him. "Some forms of genjutsu are designed to torture the person they're under. Some are designed to put whatever the person is really scared of in all around them. Some turn your friends into enemies, so you end up attacking them…"

Naruto looked paler and paler as she trailed off, but Yasha seemed like he knew or guessed all that already. The blond was left speechless for a while, but the two patiently waited for him to speak.

"You're right…" he muttered eventually, "Genjutsu isn't for me."

The two exchanged relieved looks. Kurenai didn't want to feel that blast of chakra again, and Yasha was pretty relieved he hadn't just changed Naruto's fighting style from the predictable future one to a big question mark.

Yasha smiled at him, ruffling his hair again. "Don't worry, I'll find you some good taijutsu to work with instead. A lot of people only do ninjutsu or taijutsu, since genjutsu is a rather uncommon field."

Kurenai nodded agreement to the blond, unsurprised by Naruto's verdict. Good that he wasn't going to beg another few chakra blasts off her; she was fairly certain her demeanour would be lost completely. "At any rate, you can definitely improve on the genjutsu, Yasha-kun. I'll be happy to give you tips on the shape of your chakra – do it again."

Naruto watched as his friend demonstrated the horrible art. _'Those three seals made your best friend seem to die in front of you?'_ He gazed down at his hands with a frown. They felt almost _tainted_ from having done the seals for something so gross. _'I should ask before I use a jutsu from now on…'_

He missed what Kurenai said to Yasha, but the other boy grinned back at her. "I've got stuff to work on for the next week, then!"

"See you after the mission, then. You too, Naruto-kun, if you still want to learn genjutsu…?" she trailed off questioningly.

Naruto made a big, emphatic X with his arms that both of the two genjutsu users were happy to see, and all of them smiled knowingly as he denied the request. The bearded observer hefted himself to his feet, and the two jounin classmates silently watched the two boys wander off, laughing to each other about something.

Asuma's gruff voice broke the silence. "Want to get a drink after all that?"

Kurenai nodded back, hiding a blush. _'He's gotten handsome with that beard…'_

As the two left, the bearded Sarutobi suddenly shot a realising glance after the two. "Hold on, isn't it a Monday? Shouldn't they be in the Academy?"

Kurenai burst out laughing.

* * *

Itachi dispelled his clones and frowned. Naruto wasn't at home nor at the Academy where he was meant to be. Although the memories from the Academy were funny – someone had left a sliding window open so out of boredom he decided to shunshin directly inside Naruto's classroom, appearing with a whirl of leaves in front of the whiteboard.

"Iruka-san, is Naruto available? … Or Yasha?"

Sasuke blurted happily, "Itachi-niisan!"

_'Way to ruin the point of being in black ops,'_ Itachi thought as he didn't react, although he couldn't help smiling behind his mask. The rest of the classroom certainly made up for his lack of reaction – with four prominent figures in the gossip circles all mentioned at once, the classroom exploded into chatter.

The teacher took a good five seconds to regain his composure, something Itachi chalked to surprise and low rank. And then Iruka flushed red. "Oh… ANBU-san, they haven't turned up for Academy yet. I was going to look for them during break. You could try Ichiraku's Ramen."

Itachi gave a short nod and shunshinned away, idly extending his hearing with chakra as he knelt just out of sight. Yep, he was the topic of some very interesting rumours. The kids didn't seem to know Yasha was the 'KI alarm clock', but only the jounin and some chuunin knew that. They did, for some reason, think Naruto was involved with the mass knockout, but not Yasha. Yasha was a dark horse – no one was sure about him at all, so the rumours were everywhere in both realism and accuracy.

Sasuke seemed to have quite a reputation, but that was expected.

_'My otōto trains hard,' _he thought proudly, a smile tugging at his lips which quickly vanished as his thoughts soured._ 'If only things were a bit less hostile with the clan…'_

He sent a burst of chakra to his legs and made his way to the ramen stand, his appearance nearly making the brown-haired server drop her bowl. At that point the clone that had gone to the Hokage's monument had dispelled, no success, but one of the trees there looked like it'd been run through a shredder.

"Excuse me, miss. Do you know where Naruto or Yasha are?"

The young woman appeared to be dazed again, and Itachi briefly wondered if _everyone_ needed so much time to register an ANBU had appeared. Eventually she supplied the two were going to train with Kurenai, but she didn't remember where.

Itachi idly realised that he could just throw her into genjutsu and search her memories himself, but shook himself out of that thought. She wasn't a target, she was a Konoha civilian – it was overkill.

He gave a nod to her and flickered away again as a third clone dispelled. So, he wasn't at home either, and no signs of a struggle there, so kidnapping was unlikely…

Again, he shook himself. He was jumping into the extreme case scenarios by default… force of habit, most of his ANBU missions were in the extreme realm. It was surprisingly jarring to have to tone down so much. _'I'll have to work on that.'_

The dispelled clone's memories showed the smells and other tracking methods at Yasha's house were too weak to track in the middle of a city, so they had left a while ago… that left searching for any of the three at the training grounds. Knowing Kurenai… well, no, he barely knew Kurenai at all. He sighed and dispelled himself.

The original frowned, sighed as well, and started going to the lowest number training ground, working his way up.

When he finally came across them, the two boys were walking away from Kurenai and Asuma. Itachi automatically tracked all four, monitoring stances, weapons, exits, chakra activity… then caught himself.

He flickered in front of them in a kneeling pose, causing a startled yelp from Naruto and a violent flinch from Yasha. "Naruto, the Sandaime would like to see you."

"Um… thanks?" Naruto replied uncertainly, thrown by the sudden appearance. Itachi nodded, grabbing him and holding his fingers up in a half-Ram. Yasha started forward but then the scene changed in a blur.

_'Damnit,'_ Yasha thought grimly, retracting the hand he was going to grab Naruto with. _'If he's not from the Hokage, one of Danzō's Root or something, I wouldn't be able to stop him… I really need to be faster…'_

He slapped his hands into a Henge to lower his weight and took off at a run towards the Hokage tower. _'It's gonna take me about fifteen minutes or so… this is gonna be exhausting.'_

* * *

"Whoa…" Naruto blinked, heavily disorientated as he arrived in the Hokage's office. Despite all that had happened to him, being in a shunshin was a new experience. Did the ANBU _hug_ him to do it? He was fairly sure he had bounced off something upside-down on the way in here as well. And sideways, several times…

"Oh, Naruto-kun," the Hokage greeted in surprise, making a note to tell Itachi not to shunshin pre-genin in the future. The blond stumbled around dizzily, turning to greet the Hokage only to find he was looking the wrong way. He spun around quickly, losing his balance and falling on his butt with a thump.

His eyes trailed around, trying to recover from the equilibrium and focus on the figure behind the desk while Itachi gave an apologetic shrug to the Hokage. For some reason, Yasha was unnerving to be around. Probably the KI. Itachi hadn't wanted much more than to just dart out of there, and Yasha wasn't invited with Naruto anyway, but even he was realising it was a bit abrupt.

But soon the blond was ecstatically clinging to the ANBU begging him for instructions on how to do that and proclaiming how 'it was so _fast!_'. Of course, the Hokage just raised an eyebrow at being ignored, eventually chuckling as Itachi was awkwardly forced to ignore the boy that was literally shaking him as hard as possible to get a response.

"Naruto!" The Hokage let his tone become commanding briefly and the boy's head snapped around. "I need you to look at this scroll."

The blond looked puzzled as he strolled to the desk. _'Is Jiji going to see how much I can read? I'll show him… wait, what if it's that kanji thing Yasha was talking about?' _His worry only increased when he saw a circular swirl mark with a bunch of kanji to the side, and other kanji in a box. _'I don't know kanji!'_ Then he realised there was what looked like a bloody handprint in another box, and a black line connected it to the swirl. "Wazzat?" he asked blankly, earning another chuckle.

"This is a summoning seal," The Hokage began to explain.

"'Summoning scroll'?" Naruto repeated, his brow furrowed in thought. _'I've heard that before…'_

"It's designed to bring people or animals to the battlefield so you can fight with them." The Hokage dumbed it down easily, disregarding the space-time labelling and trans-dimensional chakra magnetising that would stump the blond in half a second.

"How about demons?" Naruto asked eagerly, fixing the Hokage with a grin. He remembered now, Yasha had said there was a demon he could summon with a scroll.

The Hokage started. _'A demon?! Where'd he get that idea?' _Then again, this was Naruto, so he didn't need to think about tact; he just repeated bluntly, "A demon?"

"Yeah! Yasha said he had a scroll that could summon a demon and only I could do it!" the blond declared, Itachi nervously shifting his weight in the background at the announcement.

_'Well, one mystery solved; it's coded to Naruto. How could Yasha get Naruto's blood for it?'_ The Hokage felt a sudden pang of fear. _'And a demon? This scroll has the chakra-enforced kanji for 'person'. So we've got a scroll that summons the Shinigami, and one that is meant to summon a demon but summons a person… which means it's likely the Shinigami one is pointing to a person, which only means the legendary figure… he's still alive? And he can be summoned?!'_

"Jiji, you alright? You've gone all white and stiff." Naruto had stopped ranting about Yasha's gift and was leaning over his desk, waving his hand in front of the Sandaime's eyes.

The Hokage hastily defused the blond's curiosity. This kid had a knack for paying attention in exactly the moments you didn't want him to. "What did Yasha say about it?"

"Oh, he said uh… 'I have an ally you can summon with a scroll. You just push chakra into the scroll, and he turns up.'" Naruto imitated Yasha's smooth, clear-cut tones for the paraphrasing, albeit rather badly. "Oh, and he said I can only summon them once."

_'A __**he**__,'_ The Third noted. "Anything else?" he pressed kindly.

"Uh, he said he was as powerful as Yasha was and I just tell him two things: who to attack and if I um," Naruto hesitated, his enthusiasm dimming, "…want them dead," he finished soberly.

"And he hasn't given you the scroll?" the Hokage asked cautiously.

"Not yet, but he will!" Naruto grinned at him.

The Hokage ran the words through his mind. It was fairly certain that it summoned Yasha himself, then, especially considering the regular Person seal under a Darkness kanji and Yasha's use of shadow-lookalike techniques.

Yasha was in no way called a Shinigami; it would be a good play on words, with Death Release and so on, but it wasn't a nickname. However, he was rather keen on being seen as powerful, but equally keen on hiding his abilities – a volatile and broadcasting bloodline didn't help. But he was by no means that legend…

Plus, it had to be a name you answered to, or just a generic species name. Since it was the latter, it was fairly likely Yasha didn't want who this scroll summoned known to Naruto. _'Odd… he plans to give Naruto the scroll, and somehow obtained blood from Naruto to ready the scroll beforehand, but why a summoning scroll? Was he planning to leave the village and be summoned back? No, a summon would cancel out eventually, putting him back outside. But, it would bypass the village barrier… but from the way Yasha's described it to Naruto… Yasha is setting himself up to be a trump card for him. Ah.'_

Hiruzen figured it out, but it still confused him a little. Yasha was going to hide his abilities and then be able to fully showcase them once summoned under the pretence of being something/someone else. He described himself as a demon so Naruto wouldn't get too close to him, because if Naruto thought he'd put Yasha in a bad position, he wouldn't summon him.

Clever… and also rather moot, unless of course the two were spending more time apart than the Sandaime Hokage had anticipated and Yasha wanted to give him some form of protection without physically being there. Well, he didn't know how to clone himself, so that was fair enough. Although why he'd thought ahead so far and only received a _single_ one-use scroll was odd.

Maybe he thought whoever was around would catch on if Naruto had too many? And it'd be difficult to bluster your way out of 'I have several of these scrolls but I can't make any more and I can't tell you where I got them from'. A single one could be called a gift or bought from a travelling merchant – it was probably not Yasha's nature to splurge. His sponsor had provided money, but once he ran out, that was it.

The blood sample was still a worrying question. It still sent shivers up the Hokage's spine when he wondered how that brightly smiling Uzumaki in front of him had a blood sample taken without him knowing…

Naruto probably wouldn't catch on the summoned person being Yasha, assuming the scroll summoned with… yeah, there, a timer circuit. The person would feel a tug and have about… ten seconds to get ready before they were moved. Time to don a Henge, certainly.

He could hardly ask the boy if he had blood taken. If he hadn't seen the scroll before, it was obviously a no to that. He'd just end up disturbing and/or confusing him. When he did get the scroll from Yasha, the brunette was probably going to lie and say it was his handprint on it… and Naruto would just accept it, damn it all. No wonder the little manipulating Yasha would be attracted to him – he was like putty… simple, emotionally sensitive, and completely dependent on other people.

And whenever he saw Yasha, Hiruzen was talked back into trusting him despite the obvious unknown questions, such as this scroll._ 'He asked, would he hurt Naruto? …No. He wouldn't. Yasha is in Konoha for his own training, as well.'_ Naruto, if nothing else, gave Hiruzen no reason to touch Yasha. Much less Danzō or heaven forbid, any other enemies with their feelers in the village. He was too close to an important figure to not attract attention if he was contacted.

Even if Hiruzen passed on the hat, that don't-touch rule would still apply, and only an idiot of a next Hokage would fail to recognise it. Danzō seemed to be impatiently waiting to receive the Hokage hat, since Kakashi betrayed him in his assassination attempt just after the death of Minato – something that finally let on about Root, but Danzō assured Hiruzen that Root will work with regular ANBU until Hiruzen was no longer Hokage.

Danzō could use the Uchiha coup attempt as a screen to try another assassination attempt… although if Danzō did make Hokage, the Uchiha wouldn't be getting anything but what he had suggested to Hiruzen so far: enslavement like the Hyuuga Branch members, or outright elimination. Although, it wouldn't be like him to remove from the village's power – arrogant or prideful aside, the Uchiha were strong. Maybe he had a plan to pacify them after killing Hiruzen.

Hiruzen sighed and rubbed his face blearily. All this attempting to work out what everyone's goals were and how far they would go to get them was ridiculously exhausting. And he had no choice but to rack his brain for the next week until the attempt.

Speaking of which, he had to ask Itachi if there was a date he had heard.

"Jiji, you okay?" Naruto asked.

Hiruzen managed a smile. "I'm fine, Naruto-kun. I've just got a lot on my plate today."

"Oh. Okay." Naruto peered down at the scroll again. "So what's about this scroll? Do you want me to use it?" He rolled up his sleeve, ready to slam it down and throw all the chakra he could muster into the scroll.

_'Oops,'_ the village leader thought.

* * *

**AN:** Oopsies. Hokage made a bad decision there, although he wouldn't have known in advance.

Timeskip in next chapter, goes a month before the Hokage gives into his suspicions and what Shikaku's noticed about Yasha and Naruto's relationship, and takes some action; Yasha counters cleverly. You can expect the next chapter next Sunday, since it's already written. I've already written 32k words in advance.

I have a question, folks. I'm considering editing this story so the jutsu names are translated to English – firstly, it upsets my spellchecker, and secondly, although I'm a fan of Naruto, I'm not particularly so embedded into the story I've memorised every technique name – and thirdly, new techniques will just confuse everyone without a photographic memory or some schiz.

Let me know if you want Englishified names or you Must Have Ze Japaneze. Review or PM dat stuff.

You can also PM/reivew the other comments you have – I respond to all PMs/reviews with questions I receive – apart from one guy whose grammar died so much I literally couldn't process what he meant.

So far, I've got one review saying they don't need the bonding buddy time with Naruto/Yasha (re a prev chapter's question), and one staying neutral, and the rest not mentioning it at all. Woo, reception.

Cyaz laterz.


	22. I plead temporary insanity

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 22: I plead temporary insanity_**

* * *

**AN:** Howdy. I'm busy plodding around looking for good fics to read. I mainly trawl the Most Recently Updated and exclude the ones that are obviously for-the-lemons, ones that are cringe in realism or grammar, and those that tell a story I'm not interested in (e.g. starts-in-Shippuden; I only like the ones that start before Academy grad).

Post any that match that to me! I wanna see, I wanna know, I wanna find out! (ha, episode title reference)

Anyway, last chapter, we left Naruto about to activate the scroll.

The Hokage stopped him and bluffed his way out of it, distracting him with conversations about other things. Eventually, the Kage just returned it back to the orphanage, and left it unwatched; although Yasha was perturbed by Naruto's absence, the blond didn't spill why he was called away, because the Hokage covered it up by taking them both to free ramen.  
Yasha has yet to give the summoning scroll to Naruto. He forgot, got lost on the road of life a little. His days are filled with memorising the Academy stuff, working on his Henge without Naruto around, babysitting Uchiha brats, cleaning up the kids' place while trying to remain undetected…

Well, let's get into it!

* * *

A week passed, and a month on top of it.

Although the Uchiha became even more hostile, there was no coup, nor did the two moles in the Uchiha suspect it was coming immediately… although the talks were still continuing. Fugaku seemed hesitant for some reason, ignoring a few holes in his security Hiruzen deliberately made in order to trap him. Hiruzen had been nearly going out of his mind with worry, working long nights to come up with ways of pacifying their relationship – but it seemed Yasha had been wrong about the start time.

And that was disturbing, on a deeper level than Sarutobi had expected.

Yasha's sponsor had information sources that were simply incredible; knowing about the coup and both moles was incredibly select information. Even counting Yasha's mind-reading tricks, Danzō and other council members were not fools enough to fall prey to it; besides, the techniques made Yasha's movements sluggish and slow to the point it was easier for him to stand still, or made him collapse entirely. There was no chance he had gotten into the village to use it; Yasha's technique didn't do anything for memories, just present thoughts, meaning the person had to be conscious and thinking about the topic the mind-reader wanted information on.

Why the week had had such expectancy, and had just been smoothly passed by, was very unnerving. _'In a sense,'_ Sarutobi realised, _'I've come to rely on Yasha's sponsor to confirm information. He's a completely passive third party who hasn't actively interfered at all, outside of sending Yasha. Without him confirming the Uchiha's plans and their dates, I feel… uneasy. It was my only source outside of Itachi, and I need all the sources I can get.'_

With that, the village leader had pulled his hair out for the month, while things soured even further, both in the Uchiha relationship and his feelings about Yasha being wrong, until Shikaku had reported something which made Hiruzen give up on his passivity and call a somewhat unwilling Inoichi back in.

After brief small talk and greetings the Third Hokage cut to the chase. "Inoichi-san, I'm going to need you to perform a mind-reading on Yasha, to discover his true intentions."

Inoichi gave the village leader a displeased look, noting it was an order. "I'm not comfortable with that idea, since Yasha will take it as a sign of mistrust, and his bloodline makes it improbable that it will work. Even medical diagnostics fails."

"After that stunt he pulled, I'm not too worried," Sarutobi countered heatedly.

Inoichi flinched, and frowned. What the Third had told him wasn't pleasant. "I'll use the more… passive methods of interrogation. But we will need to make it an official interrogation. A personal talk will not gain anything, since Shikaku's already been working on him that way."

Which was true; Shikaku had partially been watching the brunette out of a personal interest, but due to no change in the level of trust with Yasha, he had continued to stall about Nara techniques. Yasha had managed to generate a perfect copy of Magen: Narakumi No Jutsu a few days ago, but Shikaku kept him working on it anyway, claiming some flaws still existed. He could only stall for so long, though; it was fortunate Yasha hadn't thought to try the genjutsu on anyone else.

So far, the unbreakable-genjutsu hypothesis had proved completely unfulfilled. Shikaku had little difficulty shaking off the genjutsu Yasha threw at him, although detectability was very difficult. With stalling and getting Yasha to keep repeating the D-Rank, the near-undetectable genjutsu was being ironed out into completely undetectable.

And Yasha had gotten steadily better at shōgi. Shikaku estimated within a year, he would be considerably difficult to beat for him – Yasha's ability to school his emotions and make bluffs with his physical reactions made it a difficult challenge, and he was gaining experience. So far, he hadn't won, though.

Shikamaru had, surprisingly, been motivated by Yasha to work harder. It had no doubt caused Shikaku a bit of guilt that he wasn't sharing the Nara techniques with who his son was motivated by, but that was just how it was. Shikaku still had no reason to increase his trust of Yasha – his shōgi matches had also shown just how wily and devious the boy could be; if he hadn't been low on experience, and the experience only gained under Shikaku's eye, the Nara would be much more hard-pressed. The concept intrigued him as much as it disturbed him. Shikamaru had progressed at a steady rate, but his previously overwhelming laziness had downgraded to just prominent levels.

Owing to the father-son conversations, it turned out Yasha had told Shikamaru he liked efficiency above all else – which went hand in hand with laziness. Only motivation discerned the difference. Someone who was lazy, and wanted to do the task with minimum effort, would focus on doing it efficiently. The two shadow-using boys had hit it off, and Yasha had even managed to pull off a couple of wins against Shikamaru in shōgi, albeit only when they were playing with thirty-second move intervals.

Oddly, Naruto was rarely seen around the Nara compound. Yasha would pop around for a few hours while leaving the blond boy to his devices on the Hokage monument (the Third had seen him occasionally, and sent an ANBU every so often to check up on his day).

This had led to the blond not forming a particularly strong relationship with Shikamaru, who wasn't motivated to talk during classes. Although Shikaku's son had noted it was a bit unusual, Yasha had just explained 'three's a crowd' and left it at that.

With Sasuke, Yasha had befriended him to a considerable level; the intimidation Yasha gave off and his friendly personality synced well with the Uchiha. Much to Sasuke's chagrin, he had yet to spar seriously with the Death Release user, and hadn't even managed to sit next to him more than twice. The Uchiha would have increased his fighting ability so the only suitable opponent was Yasha, but he already thrashed the entire class in seconds, and the Death Release user had played his cards well to remain in the middle of the pack. So they weren't pitted against each other that often.

Nonetheless, their relationship grew considerably stronger, but was only very short conversations at school, although Yasha was much more receptive to talking with Sasuke when he met Yasha on his own. Sasuke had come across Yasha babysitting the Uchiha kids a couple of times and normally they talked for a while then.

The few times Sasuke had managed a conversation inside the Academy, Yasha had been completely uninterested in conversation, being clipped and minimalistic on a level the Uchiha expected from his own clan. Eventually, Sasuke realised the connection: whenever Yasha was with Naruto, or within sight of Naruto, the conversations were shaved short and sweet. Yasha went so far he was bordering on rude each time. Sasuke was perturbed by the correlation.

Even Shikamaru had picked up on it, which leading to Shikaku being told at one point.

Shikaku, however, had overcome his initial guilt for not teaching Nara techniques to Yasha when he had dissected that information; Yasha was _deliberately_ not allowing Naruto to develop any other relationships, essentially claiming a monopoly on Naruto's feelings. Was it a case of simple jealousy or something darker? There was no way to know. A monopoly was extremely dangerous for a Jinchūriki, particularly one who had suffered things Naruto had.

When he had come to the Third with _that_ revelation, the Third had immediately sent an ANBU to watch Naruto and Yasha for a few days. Yasha was fiercely training in chakra build-up and studying all chakra control exercises he could get his hands on. He was also analysing the brain and genjutsu secrets, on occasion training with Kurenai, who at the Hokage's request kept him up to date on what he was taught.

On the other hand, during those few days, Naruto was reportedly being treated well, was perfectly healthy, being taught (intellectually) at a rapid pace, often physically exercising with Yasha, and to all intents and appearances _happy_… but had no strong relationships outside Yasha.

If Yasha had ten portions of Naruto's emotions, everyone Naruto liked in the entire village _combined_ had seven.

At one point, the Hokage had turned on his Tōton [Telescope] technique to watch them through his ball… and they were amiably chatting and laughing over something in the kitchen. Yasha was cooking something for dinner, and for some reason Naruto was covered in flecks of paint. Laughing carefreely whilst preparing supper, they both looked completely normal, to the point it even made a smile cross the Third's face… yet they were easily the most unusual and dangerous kids in the entire village.

The blond didn't seem to notice the social disconnect from everyone else. Of course, he wasn't familiar with relationships in general, thanks to his _tenant_. Hostility and lack of relationships was something he found commonplace.

Again, it was a scenario where Yasha wanted to be in control – and he was.

Jiraiya had returned after a good while of questioning half his network, but had found barely anything on the Death Release, although the name had come up as a legend thought long lost. There were some things he confirmed by popular rumour though: the bloodline was incredibly rare and only seen in one person at a time; and it was considered cursed for a few reasons…

First, it was considered a repulsive thing to have, as most common use of it was plain deadly and high-risk to the user and allies… like most kinjutsu.

Second, whoever owned it was instinctively hated (the Third expected as much).

Third, it was _incredibly_ powerful once mastered. The legend was the Rikudō Sennin himself had to deal with the person who first carried it.

That last one hadn't surprised Sarutobi. Yasha's KI when he had riled him up was on par with his own, and he was a Kage, whereas the other was a twelve-year-old. Imagine an _adult_ with that, during a time when wars were raging between clans. Finding out he was powerful wasn't surprising, although the mention of the Rikudō Sennin was. If the Third hadn't heard about Rikudō from the First Hokage, he wouldn't know much more about the man than legends.

But then there was the fourth rumour: the legendary Shinigami, a key player in the tide of the Third Shinobi War and completely unaffiliated with any village, had many correlations with Yasha.

This entity, if he ever existed, was best described as a walking curse, and closer to a god than a man. He was often found near the bloodiest battles. Even Minato had written about his suspicions that the Shinigami had been nearby. A lot of journals and logs showed warnings of him passing by, but no one remembered him.

Jiraiya, on his return, had again pressed the point home about Yasha's unknown intentions. He had even offered to stay around Konoha to help with making any seals that would reveal any lies Yasha threw out.

Thus, the Third came to the current scenario, with Inoichi sullenly complying with his order.

It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday. Two people from T&amp;I were sent to collect again, as the Yamanaka tersely walked to the T&amp;I building.

* * *

Yasha sighed even as Ibiki pushed him down onto a plain metal chair. _'So, it came to this.'_

He wasn't surprised. To make sure Naruto was used to him going away, he kept leaving the blond to his own devices. However, he kept him away from others. He didn't want to lose control of what was easily the most pure-hearted person he'd met. There were far too many scumbags around, with their own agendas. And he'd apparently taken that too far…

Ibiki paid close attention as the seals on the floor activated, grabbing onto Yasha's chakra and attempting to slow it down (a suggestion by Jiraiya as they didn't want to suppress the chakra entirely, lest the darkness release).

It normally made someone sluggish and slow-thinking, but no side-effects beside that.

Once Yasha sat down, the first seal flared into visibility, and got slightly brighter and brighter as it attempted to work, larger seals appearing around the first.

Civilian-level suppressors fell back onto stronger levels: from genin to elite jounin… and a much larger seal that Jiraiya had put in mostly as a joke flared up, the slightly spinning huge circle beginning to bleed onto the walls.

And that began to struggle… before it failed as well. The darkness was just too capable of keeping Yasha's chakra flow constant; the tiny insects could easily manhandle the larger chakra molecules around any sort of chakra interference. To stop his chakra, it would be like trying to stop pebbles flowing through water, without being able to interfere with the water itself. It was impossible.

Ibiki applied a vision-blinding seal on Yasha's forehead, and charged it up with chakra – which was immediately rejected, causing the seal paper to flop off uselessly with some chakra smoke coming off it. Yasha regarded it with a detached curiosity.

The scarred jounin shrugged minutely, taking a plain blindfold and carefully tying it around Yasha. Jiraiya was planning to test more seals to make the whole interrogation simpler, but he wanted to work covertly; that way the spymaster had free rein to question Yasha without suspicion later.

As he tied it on, Ibiki's shoulders grew a bit tenser – it was like Yasha had someone gotten more dangerous now he was blinded, oddly enough. The room was brightly lit, but there was none of the increased shadow.

Jiraiya scampered into the room silently, flashing a grin at Ibiki (who rolled his eyes). He eyed up the boy, using a chakra-enhanced finger to slice Yasha's top so his chest was exposed.

He had the good start to a six-pack going on, the Sannin idly noted, before he began the process. He tried multiple seal variants, inking them onto paper with a careful yet speedy precision only seal masters could boast of and applying them to Yasha's chest one after the other, but they all just fizzed out.

Even ones he wrote with extra sub-seals to return any rejected chakra back to Yasha's body were pushed away – just much more violently. Although 'violently' just meant it didn't just fall lightly off, it _blew_ off the chest with a visible pulse of pushed away wind and chakra smoke. It was like two opposing ends of a magnet rejecting each other; attempting to prevent it only brought about a stronger reaction.

Jiraiya grew gradually more frustrated as the better part of an hour stretched by in the near-silent room. No one spoke, and it was silent, other than Jiraiya's tuts of irritation – even Yasha was patiently waiting it out, not protesting or complaining. It was nothing short of exasperating for the Sannin to come up with mechanic after mechanic, circuit after circuit, painstakingly draw them, and then find they were worthless. It was like Yasha was effortlessly rubbing his entire field of knowledge in the dirt.

He heard that chakra suppression was a bad idea, but it was the only thing he had to go on that Yasha's chakra would react to. He scribbled a regular but low-powered chakra suppression seal, one meant to cut off all control of the chakra and briefly reconsidering – before he slapped it onto Yasha's right hand.

"GGGGAHHHHH!" Yasha screamed in agony, his body thrashing violently under the restraints.

All five or so observing shinobi jumped in shock at the sudden break in the previously quiet environment as the entire hand _dissolved_ into a ball of black fog, the seal sliding off and wafting towards the floor lazily. Black smoke began to pour off from Yasha's wrist, the room's lighting beginning to flicker violently, much to Jiraiya's shock. He had even applied seals to reinforce the lights earlier.

"Fucking hell," Yasha gasped, sweat pouring down his face and his entire body rigid as steel. His right hand was still leaking black smoke. The lighting was turning off and on so erratically, it was like the worst electrician in the country had gotten drunk, then lost his tools, and decided to share his sake with the circuit breakers.

"Don't fuck around with my chakra. Fuck." He shoved chakra to the wrist, and everyone watched closely, as best they could with the lights erratically flickering on and off. Yasha's body was pouring sweat, and Ibiki and Inoichi were both glaring daggers at Jiraiya from inadvertently turning this into a torture session.

"Shit, this is spooky," Anko commented from nearby. They were recording the footage via cameras in the cell, relaying it to screens nearby. Inoichi glanced over at her tone, and saw it wasn't just the lights being interfered with – the videos were flickering into static and white noise from the moment Jiraiya had applied that last seal. Not to mention the KI levels had hit jounin levels in a hurry.

"That's the second fucking time I've had to regenerate that fucking hand!" Yasha swore through gritted teeth as the skin slowly regrew.

Jiraiya looked shocked and guilty. His curiosity as to why chakra seals caused damage had made him ignore his orders. No doubt Hiruzen would be pissed as well.

He was aching to get closer to the slowly regrowing cells and the dead chakra seal, but the sudden feeling of danger had multiplied to levels even _he _wasn't comfortable with. As soon as the dark smoke had come out, the hand had skeletonised instantly and the danger level had shot straight through the roof.

The lights flickering everywhere despite his enforcing seals and was something he really didn't expect. These insect swarms were something out of a horror movie.

Inoichi had raised his eyebrow at the sudden degrading of language. People with Yasha's manipulating-with-words mindset were normally very particular with words… but apparently he had a nasty temper under that careful resignation. And apparently sarcasm was one of his coping mechanisms.

Back to what the psychic master felt from the room… the darkening, every time the lights would flicker off, the walls, the ceiling, the floor… it felt like they came alive and closing in like they were thousands of hungry mouths. It was a fear reaction even Inoichi was unused to.

He had never seen anything that invoked a fear reaction without an experience or knowledge to start it up. Never to this degree, either.

Fear either came about by reasoning, or learning. He knew that from experience.

But this was purely instinctual fear that overwhelmed to the point Inoichi felt _heavily_ pressured by the need to **_RUN AS FAST AS I CAN_**

And his subconscious was screaming at him to do it, his somehow-fearful mind placing every shadow and inanimate thing in sight as full of some evil monster trying to get at him.

Now, to have his subconscious betray his calm, that would be normal for most shinobi, perhaps even common – but for a Yamanaka, who had trained their subconscious to perfection, it was _incredibly_ upsetting to have a subconscious devolve into some animalistic instinct and start screaming at the conscious. Certainly, for a Yamanaka, it was unthinkable for this to happen in combat. And Yamanaka was very used to high levels of killing intent. But for some reason, this wasn't just plain killing intent. It was having an effect on his visual cortex, causing very mild hallucinations.

Of course, the subconscious controlled the body more than the conscious, even for a member of his clan. Inoichi's heartrate was off the scale, he was sweating, and his body felt like lead. Jolts of ice would shoot up his spine every time the lights flickered out.

_'Whatever this is, I didn't __**think**__ to fear it, which means it's an evolution-inherited trait… my ancestors feared it and passed that fear on… incredible.'_ How could Yasha's bloodline control an insect of such a nature _human evolution itself_ stored the fear of it? Was it really just swarms of _insects?_

It was mostly taken for granted that the commonplace use of Killing Intent was the only evolution-inherited trait in existence; being scared of the KI pressure, a pressure that could only be measured by minds and how strongly they reacted. He hadn't come across another evolution-inherited trait, ever.

This was a new exception, and he was only too eager to note its effects on his body, even as he fought back his subconscious into submission. Just like his first experience with strong KI, he had frozen up, with his mind screaming at him that his demise was coming. Unlike KI though, this one hadn't frozen his conscious… probably the extra decades or so of training…

_'Body is poised to run, but frozen in place. Heartrate is increased. Breathing is faster. Sweating. Pupils are probably heavily diluted to find threats, can't see a mirror from here. Light seems dimmer and darkness much more foreboding. Darkness is seen as predatory for my subconscious…_

_'Oh, it's switched tactics. My subconscious has switched from screaming to run, to begging me to freeze up, not move a millimetre. The danger level I can feel around me can be cut with a knife… hold on, I feel it __**below**__ me…'_

Inoichi slowly looked down, fighting the heavy pressure, and his face drained of colour when he realised he had two shadows. _Slowly,_ his subconscious would only let him move _slowly_, he turned to check everyone else.

Ibiki, Jiraiya, Anko, all of them had two. A clone Jiraiya made to undo Yasha's restraints had just poofed out of existence with chakra smoke dissipating (Kage Bunshin, then), and Jiraiya flinched violently. Judging from that, he hadn't dispelled it deliberately; it'd been attacked.

Interestingly, Inoichi noted Yasha didn't have two. Weren't his attacks meant to target him first?

"You fucking idiots," Yasha swore, gasping. His hand looked raw and painful, layers of skin were missing but otherwise the whole hand was now regrown. "If I don't mould chakra in a hurry you guys are dead. I hope you used a Ka- a Bunshin."

_'Ka? Kawarimi?'_ Inoichi considered while his subconscious was thrashing against him with more and more animalistic ferocity. _'For some reason I don't think he's thinking of Kawarimi …'_

The danger level they could all feel was rising rapidly. The lights were flickering and dimming. Inoichi wasn't sure if he could hear faint rustling sounds all around him, like scraps of paper being brushed along the ground. _'Is it just the hallucinations? Or are the insects that small still producing that sound?'_

Jiraiya activated his Tōton technique and flickered out of sight – well, apart from one of his shadows, which now appeared to be formed out of thin air. Apparently that technique hid his regular shadow but not the darkness's one. And the insects evidently had no problem tracking him, as the shadow moved with him as he crept around behind Yasha's chair.

If Yasha didn't get a handle on this, Inoichi was absolutely certain they were all going to die.

* * *

Yasha groaned. He had no idea how much darkness had just flooded out of his wrist, but it was considerable. He was amazed he had the pain tolerance for staying conscious; he felt the all-too-familiar sensation of his hand being instantly ripped to shreds and slowly, itchingly and painfully, recreated.

It was agonising, but knowing there were people in danger – okay, assholes, but still just people just doing their jobs – made it much more important to retain his consciousness. They were doing this under the Third's request, to protect Naruto, after all.

This time he had managed to flare his whole chakra system when he had felt his right hand's chakra disappear. So the darkness, bouncing off his chakra flare, simply flushed outwards to the only part he couldn't send chakra to, tearing away at his hand in the space of a second. The pain was immense, losing any sort of precise chakra control instantly, but flaring chakra was an instinctive response to the pain anyway, so the flare stayed.

Yasha had half a mind to just let the darkness wander around him and kill anyone nearby. He couldn't see past the blindfold, but he could sense the KI pooling around every surface.

It would serve them right.

Plus, he couldn't move to make the Snake seal. His hands were still restrained to the chair. He could get the darkness to leave him alone, by flaring his chakra, but not to come back to him and lay off everyone nearby. He needed to make a hand seal for that, he wasn't comfortable without the focus of a seal; and doing it inaccurately would just put him in the same boat as the people around him; drawing them towards him without real control over them. _'Hmm… I can target the restraints, disintegrate them to dust…'_

Someone's hands grabbed the leather straps and they released, unravelling. Then there was a puff of smoke beside him. That Someone had been attacked, and was smart enough to clone themselves rather than getting close… probably using Kage Bunshin.

Of course, being denied supper from a flesh lookalike only peeved off the swarms. They started infiltrating the chakra network, got settled in, then as soon as they started to eat, the whole carefully-infiltrated ant hill collapsed. It would tick anyone off.

As Jiraiya stepped out of view Yasha rapidly yanked his blindfold off, his right hand still raw and the contact with the cloth making him flinch. He scowled at Ibiki, his tone dripping with venom despite the sarcasm. "There's easier ways to commit suicide, you morons."

Ibiki didn't respond as Yasha made a Snake seal (fortunately Jiraiya had thought to disable the chakra-slowing seals on the floor that would've interfered) and the flickering of the lights subsided.

Jiraiya soon became fully invisible again, and the video system got back up, the amount of static fading. Inoichi was only too happy to note his extra shadow receding into nothing. With it, his symptoms of extreme fear faded, and he detachedly noted the sensations he was feeling.

Coldly watching from within the room, having not moved since tying the blindfold, Ibiki wondered to himself how many times T&amp;I had permitted someone to mould chakra during an interrogation. It was certainly the first time he'd seen someone's hand had dissolved into bone, at least that quickly. Acid hadn't ever worked that well.

_'There's a small puddle of… oh, sweat under the chair,'_ Yasha noticed detachedly. _'I'm covered in the stuff, gross.' _His thoughts were screwed up from the pain and the dangerous scenario, but thankfully, that twat in front of him seemed fine. _'Kami, I'm so fucking tired.'_

He kept his hand raw-looking, partially because he felt a bit too drained to push chakra there and deplete his protein stores, and partly to shove their injustice in their face. "So, can I go now? This is the shittiest resort I've ever been to."

"This is Torture and Interrogation," Ibiki said icily.

Yasha was so exhausted he couldn't even muster any apprehension from the statement. "You're done torturing, can I have interrogation? And while you're at it, some milk tea."

He patted his forehead with his raw new hand, trying to wake himself up with the sharp stabs of pain going down his wrist. It didn't work too well and he just felt light-headed instead, his vision wavering.

A couple of minutes passed, Yasha's breathing slowing. Then Ibiki took his still whole left wrist and injected some liquid. Yasha glared at him as heatedly as he could, but was _'Still… so…__** damn… tired.'**_

Inoichi had recommended the highest safe dosage he could get of the potent mix. It was made from various plants and was the Yamanaka's usual way of extracting information while guaranteeing its accuracy. Since the insects could interfere with it, he had carefully estimated the max dosage for the child's body, taking into account several factors.

There was a chance the insects wouldn't interact at all, since it was injected into the blood, not the chakra coils, but if they maintained his health, it was still possible.

Yasha sighed, feeling nauseous. He hadn't felt that way originally, so that must be the chemical they just injected. _'Fucking psychopaths. I'll just stay completely mute until the chemical wears off. It's probably some shitty truth drug.'_

A couple of minutes passed. Yasha grew more nauseous as he attempted to recuperate and Ibiki silently waited for the drug to fully take effect.

Finally the scarred interrogator spoke. "Yasha, since we're done it's come to the Hokage's attention that you are distancing Naruto from his peers."

The boy just glared at him sullenly, ignoring the KI that was much lower than his tolerance level. Ibiki glanced over at Inoichi, who was out of sight of Yasha, silently asking how to proceed; Yasha had unfortunately been caused pain by Jiraiya's seal, while this was meant to be a passive interrogation. Ibiki could run with torturing – this was the village's strongest weapon Yasha was interfering with – but then again, the two were close. If he stepped too far and Yasha reported it, the Jinchūriki would be furious. Not that Jiraiya was worried about the Jinchūriki part, more about the Minato's son part.

He restrained and blindfolded Yasha again, and the boy made no move to stop him. Meanwhile, Jiraiya had the gall to try another seal to Yasha's head, which again fizzed out and slipped off. Ibiki fixed where he was with a glare but the white-haired Sannin ignored him, looking very thoughtful as even a knockout seal on the brain didn't work at all. So, the protection was still strong with his thoughts being screwed with.

_'Any chakra manipulation seals won't work, including mental manipulation, but outright chakra suppression does, although it would backfire too much to use it. Which means… unless his mind genjutsu seal was applied with Yasha's permission for it… it would be __**impossible**__ for him to have any mental seal. Both hand seals and written seals' effects are countered by the insect swarms.'_

The seal master tapped his lip thoughtfully. _'The possibilities are just applying seals while Yasha is unconscious, which I wouldn't think would work, and applying them with his permission, so he overrides the automatic defence._

_'There could be a far more complicated way, but if both those two ways fail, I'm going to assume he's faking about the mind seal. Time for Inoichi to test for its presence.'_

Inoichi felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to face the now-visible Sannin. He glowered as the ninja gestured for him to enter, but reluctantly stepped forward to the re-blindfolded boy.

He calmed himself, shoving the reluctance away. It would interfere with the connection; he had finer control over his hormones and emotions for good reason, the Yamanaka techniques required it.

Once he was calm, he started making the twenty-odd hand seals. There was no machinery here to assist with the mind-reading, so this would be draining, since he didn't want to just fire his consciousness at insect swarms and risk them holding onto the chakra and not letting it return.

There were luckily defences for that – a method of cloning the brain's chakra pattern for very short periods, then on connection part of the clone would (jarringly) merge with the original, providing a stream of chakra where none of the caster's consciousness could be lost. To put it another way, it was like using Kage Bunshin on just his brain and sending it as a formed genjutsu, then maintaining it through sheer chakra and mind control.

There was more than one reason Yamanaka techniques were Hiden.

He'd learnt from a few experiences Aburame were much harder to read, although their insects didn't flood the brain – he didn't even want to know how much harder it would be for someone with tinier and much more numerous bugs in their chakra system. He'd already read from reports Yasha's entire body was darkened to doujutsu, including his brain.

He stilled his chakra carefully and placed his hand on Yasha's head, feeling him tense slightly. Then, the boy just sighed, tiredly. Inoichi frowned even as he started the link – tired minds were lowest on protection, but sluggish to read, but Yasha seemed to already know what was going to happen… and was resigned to it.

The boy had insects in the chakra in his brain… Inoichi really didn't want to make mind contact with Yasha. But it was a Hokage's order, so he sent the carefully controlled pulse of his consciousness.

His link _bounced_ off, a couple of snippets of memories seeping through, but an eighth of his chakra had vanished for what was essentially nothing compared to how it was _meant_ to work. Inoichi blinked, and then exhaled in relief, sorting through the blurred partial memories almost absently.

First snippet: _'Looking down at paper filled with some handwritten scribbles. Possibly some signatures. Something to do with Uchiha, but too distorted to make out.'_

Second snippet: _'Walking rapidly, trees passing overhead. A bumping sensation against the chest with each footstep, feels like scrolls. No, it __**is **__scrolls, that part of the memory is prominent, since the bumping annoyed him._

Inoichi frowned as he retracted his hand. The technique was meant to generate a shared mindscape, complete with any obstacles that had been put in place such as mental seals, capable for him to work around or at least observe. That way he could glance around for seals and confirm them, then see if he should make a stronger connection and trail his way through the scrolls of memories if he could get past them.

But he was only meant to confirm there was a seal, perhaps investigate it, but not attempt to break past it; plus, he had anticipated the insects holding his chakra. They were doing that, and it was the first time this advanced level of consciousness transfer failed.

He had a few people that it was always slower, harder, and the mindscape could be full of traps and barriers, but it never just _failed _outright. Apparently the connection wasn't even strong enough to generate a mindscape at all, even with the truth serum. Those swarms were really something.

Still, at least he pulled off a couple of memory scraps; Yasha wasn't completely proof against it. Sighing quietly, he gestured at Jiraiya and Ibiki, who were both watching intently. Sign language got the point across and he re-centred himself and begun the twenty-odd seals again, adding on another five to increase the strength further.

Surprisingly, the swarms resisted the stronger connection by providing a stronger defence – they probably had built up around the brain now they knew it was being targeted. They must have made that decision by themselves – since Yasha would've already commanded them before Inoichi had sent the first one.

They thought by themselves – that was nothing short of brilliant. But two more snippets were accessible, so Inoichi trawled through them.

Third snippet: _'Naruto and him eating stir-fry, Yasha's smiling at him. Lots of happiness there, and he's concerned for Naruto in that, as a strong emotion. Good for him, the Hokage will want to hear of that.'_

Fourth snippet, blurred and almost indecipherable: _'Zack. A really blurred spiky white-haired kid, left eye covered with a dark scarf. Probably someone he met at the orphanage, odd manner of dress, and posture is unusually straight, the two are arguing. Looks vaguely like Hatake Kakashi, but the age wouldn't match up, and Kakashi could whip out a Henge at age four, he wouldn't make himself look like a younger version. Can't make out the background at all. Zack is important, I can tell that, but why?'_

Inoichi was finding it a huge test of his skills to extrapolate the memory's scenario when half the senses and emotions were missing or only partially present from the memory.

The fact an eighth of the mind reader's chakra and tens of very carefully made hand seals only equated the mildest effort, maybe _1%_ of his chakra with this much focus, was not pleasant either. It was honestly rather aggravating, but he suppressed that feeling; it'd interfere with the emotions he read from the connection.

Calmly, he did the hand seals for the third time, strengthening it to its limit. Soon he'd only get one snippet; the swarms _were_ getting better at resisting the carefully tuned chakra, much to his displeasure (and reluctant admiration).

"What do you think about Naruto?" Ibiki casually asked, a second before Inoichi threw his technique at the brain again. The two memories that had surfaced and been intercepted were…

_'Yasha gazing at Naruto with suppressed anger, Naruto has blood coming from his mouth. He's thinking: "Idiot. I wish you would fight back, claim the rights you __**deserve**__. I wish I could tell you who your parents-" and then the memory runs out.'_

The sixth snippet, a partial thought instead of a scene, thanks to the insects. _'Naruto can't find out. He can't keep a secret. Although he kept the abuse he had every night-' _

Inoichi froze up at the anger and protectiveness around those memories. _'Clearly Naruto has had more than one abuse session prior to Yasha coming into Konoha, judging from the 'had', but how would Yasha know that? He was only around Naruto briefly and the ANBU team watching both of them hadn't witnessed much more hostility than Naruto getting glares. There was no way the team had hurt Naruto or let him be hurt… right?'_

Inoichi scowled. Yasha had him doubting everyone. Still, maybe he was over-protective – he was definitely more protective of Naruto than he was of the villagers, judging from the fifth snippet. And he wanted to tell Naruto his parents? Yasha might've been told that, it was relevant, but it was top-secret. Even Inoichi didn't know, but he had pieced it together from rumours and inherited mannerisms.

Yasha could have been thinking that along the lines of 'I wish I could tell you who your parents were, but I don't know either', but it was worth bringing up later.

He remade the seals and gestured to Ibiki to send his next question. "What about the Uchiha?"

_'Now he's speaking, looks like an Uchiha toddler. "Ninja, huh? Come on outside, I'll teach you the Rasengan." Not that I know how to do it.'_

_'He's thinking: "I'm sorry, Itachi, I'm so sorry for you. You deserve one tear at least. Pity it's raining." He's glaring up at a cloudless sky.'_

Inoichi frowned. _'I should think not, Yasha, but even knowing of that technique… and what's that about Itachi? Why are you so sad for him? He's just another ANBU, a prodigy and clan heir, but nothing that would sadden you __**that**__ much. What's the story here?'_

Next question. Inoichi gestured what to say, and re-made the seals. "And what do you know about Naruto's parents?"

"Fuck you," Yasha swore at Ibiki, his chakra beginning to rile up, throwing Inoichi's next transmission into complete oblivion. Inoichi's brow furrowed, not at the insult, but the way Yasha threw off the already pitifully weakened connection. Apparently, if Yasha's emotions were disturbed, he'd resist completely.

Inoichi made another gesture, Ibiki frowned at him, but he nodded. With an inaudible sigh, Ibiki stepped forward, stepping loudly to draw Yasha's attention. Ibiki kept repeating questions that Inoichi hand-signed at him, even if some made him raise an eyebrow, he didn't skip a beat and not a drop of emotion went into his coldly demanding tone. He was the head of T&amp;I for a reason.

Inoichi didn't bother using his memory technique, just tapping into the current thought to see if Yasha was lying.

"What do you know about Konoha?"

"It's full of shitheads who commit child abuse. An easy example is the abuse happening now."

Meanwhile, his thoughts were quite darker… namely, **_'I'LL TEAR YOUR FUCKING THROATS OUT!'_**

Inoichi was constantly frowning now. He had just noticed every memory snippet was full of malice and darkness that was _way_ too strong for a child. Even during pleasant memories with Naruto, it was _humming_ in the background… waiting to pounce.

Frankly put… it reminded him of Orochimaru. Before he had fled the village, the snake's eyes held a malice and lust for power no one could deny. Of course, during a war, that was encouraged… the malice redirected towards the enemy of course, but nonetheless obtaining power was encouraged. Konoha wanted aggressive and strong shinobi, and Orochimaru was definitely that.

And then he had left once Minato took the place of Fourth Hokage and his evil experiments were exposed, throwing his teammates aside in a casual way that had been the last straw for the emotionally unstable Tsunade and his apparent friend/rival Jiraiya.

Jiraiya left out of guilt for Orochimaru's defection, starting to track him with his spy network, and building up the network further and further. And then the Kyuubi had attacked, killing Jiraiya's student that had made Fourth Hokage… and Jiraiya had lost it entirely, almost going indefinitely out of contact with Konoha like Tsunade had.

If it wasn't for the Third spending time with him, he probably would have stayed out of contact completely, until he tracked down or killed Orochimaru at least.

Unfortunately, Tsunade had outright refused to come back for a therapeutic talk; her family had died and there was nothing words could do that would ease that. It was disobeying a direct order, but grief tended to blind people to consequences.

Sarutobi was well within his rights to mark her a missing-nin, but he had 'lost the paperwork'. It did come off as betrayal to her, being a hero of the war marked as missing-nin by her home village due to her grief at her losses.

Needless to say, both Sannin had unpleasant traits that jumped out of proportion to become outright defining features. Tsunade became well-known for her gambling and debts; Jiraiya's perverseness skyrocketed to writing eroge novels. Not to mention the times Hiruzen had to write letters of apology on behalf of his student's peeking. The Third had complained often enough about that.

But having someone like Orochimaru around – prodigy, scary aura, malice and darkness bleeding off him, and a hatred of Konoha's citizens – Inoichi knew Yasha was going to be dancing on very thin ice if Inoichi revealed that. And he was duty-bound to; he didn't want to ruin Yasha or Naruto's lives, but he didn't want the village enduring another Orochimaru either.

But the overprotectiveness Yasha had for the blond made more sense when tied with him knowing more than expected about Naruto's abuse. Plus, Yasha had been forced to kill people for child abuse before – it was probably something he couldn't react normally to.

"What is going on with Naruto's abuse?" Ibiki asked flatly.

The room temperature dropped to icy levels. Inoichi actually felt goosebumps appear over his skin. Of course, Yasha's chakra, while restrained, was still fluctuating wildly, so Inoichi cancelled his technique and waited for him to speak about what horrors Naruto had been subject to.

His mouth curled into a twisted smile.

"I think that is something that's too late to worry about now. The damage has been done, and a new architect has taken over construction. I'll protect him from you bastards if I have to wipe out this entire village. And in the meantime, consider this a _truce_ with Konoha, at least until I figure out who's _personally_ responsible. And once I do… **I'll** **shove my hand down their throat and strangle them with their own fucking intestines.**"

Everyone listening took a step back. Yasha's smile just grew more twisted at the lack of response.

Inoichi frantically made gestures to the stunned Ibiki, who recovered from his shock rapidly and moved to obey as Inoichi hastily moved out of sight.

The scarred interrogator tore the blindfold off Yasha roughly. Yasha gazed at him calmly, his eyes completely devoid of light, but the smile had faded.

Ibiki smirked back at him, the scars distorting the expression. "Don't worry, _Yasha-san_. If you find out someone who's been abusing him, I will _personally_ find a nice cell in T&amp;I and make a few visits."

Yasha's creepy smile returned, albeit smaller. His eyes grew contemplative.

Jiraiya realised he was a bit out of place when three of the four T&amp;I people around him were donning sadistically twisted smiles. _'The guys at T&amp;I are some scary shit.'_

Inoichi was the only one not smiling – his face was carefully contemplative. He was well used to Ibiki and Anko's twisted smiles, and seeing them on Yasha, although it _was_ very disturbing – it was something he was ready for.

What he _wasn't_ ready for was hearing Yasha using child abuse to get T&amp;I staff on his side – even if Inoichi trusted Ibiki not to be too swayed – it was as genius as it was spooky to see a child wield child abuse as a manipulation tool. _'Prodigy, genius, intelligent, manipulative, cold, malicious, always experimenting, creepy, dangerous… Yasha sounds exactly like the second coming of Orochimaru.'_

Ibiki's twisted grin faded as he got to the point. "But before you can go on your little investigation, we're going to have to confirm your loyalty."

Yasha shrugged. "I go where the wind blows…" Ibiki fixed him with an intimidating look that Yasha blithely ignored, the boy simply continuing, "I might not be the type of person who makes a storm… but I _am_ the type who runs to one, to stand inside it, enjoying the howling wind around me."

"I don't need a pretty metaphor, Yasha-_chan_."

'chan' was a honorific used for girls and very young boys – boys considered to be cute. In short, it was offensive to any boy over four. Ibiki then returned the favour by ignoring the dark glare sent at him.

Yasha scowled at him. "Are you sure? You guys need to cheer T&amp;I up. Some flowery language couldn't hurt. And where's my fucking tea?"

Not that he really wanted to drink things, his stomach was feeling worse and worse, but it might calm it down. Whoever's hand had been on his forehead was probably a Yamanaka, judging from the pulses of energy he felt. His thoughts went a bit loopy when the energy hit.

Intriguing that they blindfolded him – either an intimidation tactic or they were hiding who was infiltrating. They weren't planning to let this session convince them of his loyalty, then; clearly planning extra questioning sessions overtly.

"I'm sure a bit of gore would be more appropriate than metaphorical linguistics," the scarred interrogator managed to say the articulate phrase in a vaguely threatening manner. Yasha gave him props for that.

The twelve-year-old shrugged. "You can speak to Naruto about that. I'm sure he knows a few people you can deal with. Although you might need Inoichi for that."

"We're actually planning to do so." Ibiki half-smirked as Yasha finally reacted, with shock. The people who liked being malicious, equally hated scenarios being out of their control. But forcibly retrieving the list of people that had hurt Naruto from his head was both meant to be a warning to Yasha and a gesture that they wanted to protect Naruto as well.

Yasha gazed at him for a few seconds in thought. "Naruto sounds like the type you could easily manipulate into just outright telling you who hurt him."

A countering threat/acknowledgement. Yasha was stating he could manipulate the blond and he was just as capable of reading Naruto's mind. Ibiki repressed a frown; this boy was definitely a genius with manipulation to play the game on Ibiki's level.

Unfortunately, he hadn't been goaded into saying Yamanaka mind techniques would be impossible with the Kyuubi being inside Naruto (which was true). That was the real point of this questioning; did Yasha know about the Kyuubi?

"Are you familiar with what happens with enemies of Konoha?" Ibiki tried to suggest the Kyuubi again while seeming to talk about Yasha.

"I imagine they're bad-mouthed and then tortured for years on end," Yasha replied dryly, just countering it with another Kyuubi implication, although he could be talking about himself again. The Kyuubi was sealed within Kushina in a way that was painful to him; the seal manifesting as being staked onto a ball of lava.

Ibiki was finding him _very_ difficult to work with, and Yasha knew it, judging from the smirk tugging at his lips. "I'm not being more helpful until I get some tea. I'm serious, you know," Yasha said calmly, feeling the nausea build up in the back of his throat.

_'Shit, I'm going to vomit…'_ he realised distantly. "Ibiki-san, can you get me a bucket, or someone will have to clean the floor."

Ibiki balked at the statement; the drug never caused nausea, and Yasha shouldn't know his name. Dismissing that temporarily, he quickly made his way outside where Anko tossed him a large bowl, setting back to watch the cameras with… was that _dango?_

She had a very entertained look draped on her face, and even shot him a _cheeky smile_. She was _enjoying_ this mind game the two were playing. _'Fucking bitch,'_ he thought sardonically as he stomped back into the room and gave the bowl to Yasha.

Yasha didn't vomit, though. He coughed in a water-on-the-lungs way before yellow liquid shot out of his mouth, landing straight in the bowl. He coughed a few more times, more of the liquid pouring out.

Ibiki noted there was no smell of stomach acid. In fact, it looked like…

"I guess that's your shitty injection." Yasha quipped, then went to intimidate, "You guys aren't on a level to fool darkness itself."

There was an extended pause. Anko took the opportunity to slurp a bit of dango syrup off her latest stick, while the other two jounin just looked stunned.

"Seriously, can I have my tea now?"

* * *

"So, Yasha, tell me about Zack?" Ibiki asked calmly. Much to his infuriation, Yasha had to be brought tea before he would breathe a single word in answers.

Inoichi had predicted that much from what the ANBU team reports had said – it was a keyword of sorts for Yasha, made him predictable in a way. Ibiki could hardly punch him around against the Hokage's order, even with Jiraiya setting a precedent. Only mind games were left.

Yasha stopped sipping his vaguely decent tea and went rigid instantly. "Well, what about him?" he said, in a tense tone.

_'He's much tenser than he wants to be. He's still not fully in control of his emotions, not until he hides in that world-filtering shell of his,'_ Inoichi considered, knowing Ibiki was thinking along the same lines.

"Who is he?" Ibiki pressed, tone becoming harder.

Yasha's half-finished cup was gripped tighter, and his whole body tensed. He didn't bother to hide it. _'How much do they know about Zack? They can't have gotten much off of me, else they would have let me go or gotten serious. Well, possible they still haven't made the connection to the sponsor. If I react like the mind seal's triggered, that'll cover my ass in the future, but no… technically, it hasn't been triggered, I haven't attempted to talk about him. It's when I attempt to, it's meant to go off. If I blow off this attempt, and wait…'_

"He's not someone I want to talk about," he said curtly.

Ibiki and Inoichi both frowned. _'He's hiding something.'_

"I need you to tell me about him," Ibiki pressed in a no-is-not-acceptable tone.

"It's not going to happen," Yasha responded shortly, brushing off the KI (albeit with a lot of effort). "I'm not telling you a word about him."

Ibiki attempted to press him home. "He has white hair, he covers up his left eye with a black bandanna… Need I go on?"

"Please do. It's _fascinating_ to hear about my own memories," Yasha replied with sarcasm so thick Ibiki was torn between snorting and really, really wanting to punch the brat.

Anko's muffled giggling coming through the earpiece wasn't helping with Ibiki's inner peace either. Yasha couldn't hear her, but it was getting on Ibiki's nerves. He could hardly snap at Anko without Yasha hearing it, and that was a fact Anko was deliberately playing on. _'Bitch.'_

Unfortunately, they had very little to corner Yasha with. They had just confirmed even truth serums didn't work. Those insects were a pain. This scene had transpired just a while ago:

"Hey, Ibiki, got the delivery from the Aburame compound. The insecticide pills."

"Finally."

And what did the brat do with the pills? He took them and swallowed them.

And then what happened? Coughing and they came straight back up, looking like the stomach acid hadn't even touched the things. It wasn't even vomiting, just coughing and burping at the same time.

He then took them out his mouth, gazed at them curiously, then shrugged at the mystified Ibiki and handed them back.

So that brought them to now; they were now trying with the insecticide powder within the pills mixed into his tea. Luckily, the tea was a bitter variant, and so covered it up. It was the only way Ibiki had agreed with letting the brat have tea at all.

_'I can tell it's going to be one of those long days,'_ Ibiki groaned inwardly to himself. _'A smartass, and one I can't even hit at that. Oh yes, a __**very**__ long day.'_

Yasha had swallowed a mouthful of tea, and then coughed and powder mixed with spit came flying into his bowl. He gave Ibiki an unimpressed look, which Ibiki didn't even look slightly apologetic for.

"I told you, my stomach just doesn't agree with that shit. Not even mixed with tea."

Frankly, Yasha was impressed with the insects. True, he thought they were telepathic, due to his telepathy jutsu, so they probably would've picked up on his dislike of the injection, and chakra was very closely tied to blood vessels, so cleaning out his blood of the injection was possible… but he hadn't anticipated the tea to be spiked with the same pills that had just failed.

So the insects had caught on by themselves, and filtered it so accurately it didn't even hit his stomach. _'So I needn't worry about seals, bar chakra suppression, and I needn't worry about poisons that target me or the darkness. Most likely that time delay with the injection was the insects moving it to my throat to cough it up. Awesome, so I don't have to worry about them expelling it through other means.'_

Ibiki sighed half-defeatedly. "So, what relationship does Zack have to you?"

"If I told you, I'd get a headache," Yasha said bluntly. No reason hiding it, Zack couldn't even be contacted in this timeline for all he knew.

Three men straightened at that comment, some allowing celebratory smiles crossing their faces. Finally, something concrete on the sponsor.

Jiraiya frowned to himself at the name, it was unorthodox.

"The mystery man reveals himself," Anko crowed mockingly, apparently unimpressed. "Hurry up and do more mind games. I've still got dango left."

Ibiki gritted his teeth, focusing on the questions. Anko was getting a kick up the rear for that later. He could hear Inoichi telling her off in a hissing tone, which relaxed him a little. "So, he's your sponsor?"

"I can't tell you if he is, can I? _OW!_" Yasha grabbed his head violently, exhaling and spilling half of the remaining tea over himself and the floor, partially for effect.

"I'll take that as a yes. Let's move onto something else."

Yasha looked up at him through his fingers, a worryingly glazed look on his eyes. "Sure," he mumbled emptily.

"What is your relationship to Naruto?"

The glazed look was still there, unnerving Ibiki. "He is the minor objective. He is a friend."

His tone and mannerisms had gone completely simplistic and void of emotion. Ibiki didn't like it, it was like his soul had just left. Ibiki professionally put his emotions under control and attempted to take advantage of whatever was affecting Yasha's personality. "Why are you distancing him from his peers?"

"He is abused by his peers. The distancing is from them to him."

"You are also distancing him," Ibiki insisted.

"I do not distance him," Yasha denied mechanically, eyes fixed on Ibiki's face yet completely unfocused and vacant. "He is distanced by his peers."

Ibiki could tell this line of questioning was just going to loop. Inoichi spoke through his earpiece, "It's possible he's doing it subconsciously, and not really noticing it. Looks like the mind seal's affected his personality. Move on."

"Do you intend to leave Konoha?" Ibiki tried another path.

"No such intention exists. It is counterproductive to my desire to gain strength."

It was such a mechanical way of talking, matter-of-fact, emotionless. It was like an Aburame…

"Do you intend to leave or harm Naruto?"

"No."

"Are you planning things you are hiding from us or the Hokage?"

"Yes." The jounin was startled at the way it was admitted – not even casual or humorous; not a flicker of emotion graced that statement. A question was asked, and answered; nothing more or less.

"Are these plans detrimental to Konoha's military strength or security?"

"There is little chance of that."

Not impossible, then, just very unlikely in his opinion. "What are you planning with Itachi?"

"The Uchiha unrest is becoming hostile; they are planning a coup d'état. Konoha will be destroyed by waiting enemies."

Ibiki flinched, and his gaze grew hard, although Yasha's unfocused eyes didn't seem to notice. "A coup? What role does your sponsor have for you in this?"

"I delivered a message to Uchiha Shisui with supporting information about the coup attempt. That is the extent of my sponsor's expectations."

_'The way he words it…'_ Ibiki scowled menacingly. "Is your sponsor for or against the Uchiha 'actions'?"

"He is against," Yasha replied in the same droning monotone.

"Are you for or against the Uchiha actions?"

"I am against."

"And what about Uchiha Itachi and Shisui? Which are against it?"

"They both… are against." The glazed, unfocused look was slowly returning to full consciousness, and the answer was a bit more hesitant. Ibiki hastened to ask more questions.

"What are your other objectives?"

"Other enemies are moving towards Konoha; I must prevent them."

"Whom? Orochimaru?"

"Orochimaru is hostile to Konoha."

Ibiki blinked. That was vague: it didn't say anything about hostile _action_, it only confirmed what Ibiki already knew about the creepy Sannin – that he was hostile in the first place. "How does he plan to do it?"

"Huh?" The glazed look fully vanished from Yasha's eyes, and the boy blinked at himself, looking puzzled.

_'Almost like he had been unaware of the entire thing.'_ Ibiki frowned – setting off that seal seemed to start some sort of less intelligent, mechanical consciousness, and an unnerving one at that. _'Still, it seems to be truthful to the point of admitting things it probably shouldn't.'_

Anko had lost her cheer when Ibiki went back, realising how serious things had gotten and finally working out why the top T&amp;I officials, even the retired Inoichi, were interrogating a pre-genin. "The Uchiha are planning shit?" she asked bluntly.

"I think we all need to get the Hokage here before this proceeds any further, even if it is some sort of bull…" Ibiki was grim-faced, looking at the bewildered-looking Yasha through the one-way mirror. "I'll get him."

"Oi, can I have some more tea?" Yasha called, evidently recovered from his bewilderment. "Without the crud in it this time!"

Ibiki failed to stop a twitch developing in his eye before he left at full speed.

* * *

"Hokage-sama," Ibiki said urgently, interrupting whatever Kakashi was saying to the village leader. They both regarded him with surprise – Ibiki was normally much more reserved than that. The Third didn't take much to realise what (or who) it was about.

He slapped down the report he was analysing quickly. "Kakashi, I'll be gone for a while. I'll call for you when I need you."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Kakashi acknowledged shortly, surprise readable on his face for those who knew him well enough. He was fashionably late even to most of the Hokage's summons, and this was an important spy mission in Kumo he was giving the report for. _'What is leading the Hokage to disregarding the report? What spy have they caught this time?'_

The two were already gone, so the silver-haired jounin strode to the window and vanished, leaving the office empty.

* * *

Yasha smiled, although he didn't let it reach his face. _'Perfect. This'll stop them asking about the sponsor, for sure. The Hokage won't dare risk that secret getting out, and in any interrogation, it'll show up because it's one of the sponsor's original objectives. By stating that secret to people (whom the Hokage obviously trusted enough to interrogate me), I'll get him to permanently throw interrogation out the window. Interrogation and questioning all over the place is too interfering; I thought attempting to convince him from a moral standpoint, through Naruto's care, would have worked… but he's obviously getting more desperate as the coup approaches. Just two months left.'_

The inner smile vanished and his face hardened. _'It's a bit risky… the people hiding behind that mirror could be spies. But they won't serve Akatsuki, it hasn't even formed properly; and I already know Orochimaru's invasion plan and date, and my presence nor the Uchiha massacre reaching Orochimaru's ears a bit early won't affect that. The only difference is Orochimaru could start swiping Sharingan during the coup… but nah, even if he knows there was a coup attempt, how many shinobi could he have that could snoop on the __**Uchiha**__ to find out exactly when they planned it?'_

His eyes drifted over the slate grey concrete walls and the fairly obvious ink seals written on them. The seals could've been hidden, but that'd remove the intimidating factor. _'It's hard – I want the Hokage to trust me completely; and I'm running out of methods to do so. He'll have to ignore my danger factor eventually – if this doesn't work, there's not much more extreme methods I can do. He can't get rid of me, due to Naruto. He can't hurt me too much, due to Naruto. And yet, he has to remain worried about me, due to Naruto… even if I do nothing suspicious, my bloodline will make him suspicious of me.'_

A problem, but he would deal with it. He _had_ to deal with it. No one else would.

Well, Naruto would want to, but he couldn't.

Stupid blond.

* * *

"…his eyes glazed over when the seal activated, and he became completely emotionless, like his personality was suppressed. And he admitted the sponsor, who we now know to be a boy named Zack (assuming that's not a fake name), has received knowledge that the Uchiha are indeed planning something nasty…"

The Hokage's footsteps faltered horribly and he nearly lost his step on the roof. _'Damn, I hadn't considered that; the interrogation is making him reveal secrets besides his motives; secrets that no one should know, not even Ibiki. And the seal's effects are making him compliant to the point he's giving away his objectives more freely, but still hiding his sponsor's identity? I can't question him unless I let more people in on some very dangerous secrets. Kami-sama knows what else he's hiding I don't want anyone else to know about…'_

"Orders, sir?"

"Oh… these are secrets normally kept just to the higher council. Jiraiya, Ibiki, Anko, Inoichi… none of you are to share this information, on penalty of death."

They blinked at the rushed way he said it. Sarutobi was too busy staring down the brunette to notice their confusion. His face twisted. "Kami-sama damn him."

"Sir?" Ibiki questioned, glancing at the others.

"Zack. Or Yasha. He could know more S-Rank secrets. Either way…" the Hokage glared at the brunette. With angry click of his tongue he waved away the rest of the group to another room and strode into the bare cell. "Yasha, did you do that on purpose?"

"Do what, Hokage-sama?" Yasha responded with a twitch of a smile.

The Third wasn't buying the innocent act. His face remained flinty. "You _know_ that's a secret."

Yasha abandoned the pretence: he had completely faked the mechanical personality. "Unfortunately, interrogations tend to reveal a lot of side information."

"So, you stop me from finding out things that could help by revealing things no one should know?"

"Hokage-sama, there is no way to solve it," Yasha said bluntly. "Not even Shisui's message had a solution. And we can either be allies, or hostile, but either way there's not a whole lot you can do with me."

It was a threat and a boast given to a highly stressed man. Sarutobi wasn't sure how much tension he had, but his first was inches away from Yasha's face before he realised what he was doing. And it was too late to reel the chakra-enhanced fist back completely.

The boy's head snapped to the side as the still-overpowered hit shattered his cheekbone, the chair rattling underneath him but not budging from where it was bolted to the floor. His spine made a cracking sound as he bent to the side, his legs and waist still tied down.

Hiruzen Sarutobi could only blink as the boy wordlessly sat back up, the confident smirk gone. His eyes were smouldering, yet had no hatred. A trail of blood started to seep out of the boy's mouth.

The village leader of the most powerful ninja village in the Elemental Nations spoke, his tone regretful. "I'm sorry."

* * *

The darkness took a couple of minutes of focused chakra flaring to repair his jaw. It did nothing for his exhaustion, which returned at full power. Yasha ended up attempting to hold a conversation afterwards but passed out in seconds from chakra exhaustion.

Jiraiya was able to escape a severe scolding about the use of a chakra suppression seal for obvious reasons; even the Hokage couldn't retain his cool around that boy. Hiruzen had Yasha placed back in hospital under two of his personal ANBU guard squad. It was late the day after when he finally awoke. After having a meal, the Hokage requested to see Yasha again, and the boy agreed.

Yasha began with sending him a smile as he came in. "Well, I think I've annoyed you for too long to not deserve something like that. And no real harm done. You're fine, I forgive you."

The Hokage attempted a smile past the guilt at striking a child. It wasn't a thing he thought he was capable of doing. "You caught me on a _really_… stressful… day."

Yasha nodded politely for him to continue. He wasn't trusting his word about the stress, but the Hokage didn't bother looking indignant; he just listed the secrets.

"I've received word from an informant in Suna that tensions are brewing there and something is needed for the alliance to strengthen. There are rumours of Orochimaru in the Land of Rice Fields. Our village will be hosting the chuunin exams in nine months or so. The Uchiha are still hostile and I have no way to quell them. And meanwhile there's a boy wandering around from the outside of Konoha, raising questions that he either can't or won't answer."

Yasha nodded, looking unabashed by being in the list. "Fair enough."

The Hokage sat down on a nearby chair in a thoughtful pose. "And all you do is hang around Naruto and can't help at all."

"You're desperate, Hokage-sama." Yasha watched the weary leader glance up with a flicker of surprise, but he made no attempt to deny it. "I would love to tell you my sponsor's identity, but instead, I'll tell you something I would bet my life on: he cannot be found by you."

Sarutobi blinked. Yasha wouldn't make empty claims like that; he liked considering all possibilities to make sure his plans worked. That meant he thought there was no possibility, not even slight. "It was a Henge that Inoichi saw? A fake name?"

Yasha shrugged; it was possible. "Perhaps… but he has resources to find my once-per-entire-world's-generation bloodline details and who's carrying it; _and_ the ability to monitor things in the village to the level of the elder council… He'll see you coming, and he has no desire to be contacted by you."

"Why?!" The Hokage snapped. His anger faded almost instantly as he remembered why Yasha was in the hospital bed in front of him.

His posture slumped. "I don't like to admit this, but I am at a loss. Your sponsor, Zack – his methods of doing things, and how he obtained his knowledge, are beyond my understanding. And," The Hokage sighed, "he's the only one who knows as much as the elder council and _isn't_ baying for the Uchiha to be erased. As you well know, I can't arrest the Uchiha, since the repercussions will fuel the hostility. I can't even assassinate the conspirators as Danzō desires, for the same reason. Danzō's calling for the entire clan to be erased or enslaved using seals. But it's unjust, the entire clan is innocent in the Kyuubi's attack. But I have no way of proving that."

"Zack can't testify… I wish I could." Yasha's tone was wistful as he gazed out the window in thought. "Even if he does turn up, he'll be of no help to a peaceful solution – otherwise he would have turned up personally. The best you'll get is figuring out his spy network – but that'll mean he won't be able to track future problems as well."

The Sandaime Hokage and Death Release carrier looked equally sombre, the younger speaking tentatively. "If there's a peaceful solution, I'm sure you can figure it out, Hokage-sama. I know little about politics, even if I can manipulate easily… I lack the experience and knowledge of the right people to do it here."

It was half-true. Yasha had Fugaku's profile, just the basics. Likewise, Danzō, just the basics. He could manipulate them, but with a matter of this magnitude, he practically needed to be their best friend to get that much control. Decisions made of pride and actions based on (poor) morals didn't change easily.

It was a while before the older man spoke again. "Sometimes I wish Minato was still here… He always did seem to be able to pacify scenes like this."

Yasha hummed. "The Uchiha will need something new, something that grants recognition. Maybe you could appoint them as the chuunin examiners?"

The weighted man shook his head slightly. "That's not significant enough, and it's a bit _too_ obvious. Not to mention the other ninja will feel like I'm pointing out inadequacy (to a minor degree). And besides, that time is months away. The hostility is within the civilian population as well, and without something much more apparent (and present-day), the civilian trust won't be regained."

"Raise one person and everyone else feels a little lower," Yasha mused out loud.

The Hokage's head was in his hands, the wrinkles of age emphasised. "I am… at a loss. Unless there's a scenario that emerges that allows me to use the Uchiha as a display of strength, say a foreign country that suddenly decides they want an alliance with Konoha… there's nothing that can be done. And all three other nations are hostile, and Suna is already an ally. Minor nations won't be sufficient… it'd quell things but we can't initiate the alliance anyway – the fact I'm pacifying the Uchiha deliberately would be obvious to them, removing the entire point."

Yasha nodded, thinking hard. "I see… so a scenario initiated by a third party needs to turn up, in a way that requires public display of strength and only a warning of power, not aggression itself, and the party needs to be respected…"

The elderly man nodded glumly. "And what are the odds of that?"

"Very low," Yasha admitted bluntly. "Although, there are minor villages with Jinchūriki… that you could contact with… say, the Land of Waterfalls."

A glint appeared in Hiruzen's eye and he looked thoughtful. "I wasn't aware Takigakure had a Jinchūriki… and besides that, the alliance would have to be initiated by them, else the fact we have hidden motives would be obvious."

Yasha sighed. "Fine then – send Shisui to them. He can get to the leader, he's ANBU… we needn't even have an official reason for going there. He can plant the idea for an alliance using Kotoamatsukami. And then we respond by sending the Uchiha at the forefront with you to write the peace treaty, a public display of how strong the Uchiha are and how key they are to our village. Voilà."

The Third's jaw dropped and he stared at the bedridden twelve-year-old. "That is _genius_."

Yasha coughed and looked away. "I assume you know where Takigakure is?"

There was a silence and Yasha looked back to see the Third looking blank. "No, their major accomplishment was to hide in the midst of all three of the Shinobi World Wars. We know the borders of the Land of Waterfalls well enough, but not their Hidden Village's position. They've always been able to hide that."

"Geez." Yasha gripped the front of his face frustratedly. "Well, hurry up and send Shisui now. Get Jiraiya to help, too."

The Sandaime blinked. _'He knows about Jiraiya having a spy network? Well, not so surprising. His sponsor could easily have people in the same network. Spies aren't exactly bound to the nations they spy on, just allied loosely with whoever pays them.'_

"Fine." The Hokage smacked his hand on his leg decisively. "We'll get on it. But that removes Shisui's chance to use Kotoamatsukami on Fugaku."

"It's a risk, yeah," Yasha admitted, his eyes flickering to the Kage, "…but that's not my job to weigh up. Send just Jiraiya to find it, then get Shisui over there; or send Shisui with Jiraiya; or just send Shisui; or have Shisui stay here and attempt to quell things. It's your decision, Hokage-sama."

"Unfortunately, yes, it is." The Hokage gazed down at the child. He had a solution in twenty minutes of conversation, over something the Third had fretted over for the better part of a year.

It was by no means a perfect solution – Takigakure shared part of the Land of Fire's north border, true enough, but it was still a reasonably large country. It received a Bijū due to its ability to churn out highly skilled jounin every so often, and the fact their Hidden Village remained concealed despite their defences against civilian villages being maintained and fretted with for most of all the wars.

A Land's Daimyo and their Kage were closely tied. Whereas a Kage could make military alliances and such, the trading routes and resource distribution or the basic economy being shared was the Daimyo's job, and out of the picture unless the Daimyo was also in on the agreement.

The Daimyo and Kage generally shared a uneasy relationship – one could cut off all resources and funding, whereas the other was very capable of assassination and forcing the supply of those resources (aka raiding), but only very temporarily, as the farmers' funding would vanish.

They teamed together due to the fact they both wanted land, and they both wanted power; and they both knew a war between each other would drag the other greedy countries into their own land. It was generally perceived the Daimyo was superior, because if he wanted, he could cut funding to the Kage's villages, and send missions to surrounding lands.

The Kage had no way to respond, short of attacking their Daimyo, which would invite other countries into their borders. And then the usurped Daimyo would negotiate his release with his invaders, using some extra trade, economic boosts, or even land.

If the invaders killed the Daimyo and took over, they would have to deal with the entire country's resources, and all the revolting from anyone loyal to the Kage _or_ the Daimyo, or those who just didn't like the invaders' country in general, from propaganda – and no military force was strong enough to handle that.

So all the Kage would get for his revolution attempt (bar an agreement with someone in the Daimyo's household who would inherit the Daimyo's seat), would be the Kage's own demise and a gross weakening of his country.

After all, even if funding to the Hidden Village was whittled down, the country's food and resources remained the responsibility of the Daimyo, so the people would remain happy and barely noticed the lesser use of their native shinobi. And most would-be invaders would be only too happy to lower their mission costs to receive funding from other countries without the costs of military invasion.

Many Lands had no shinobi villages at all from the sheer quality of the countries' agreements, such as the Land of Rice Fields, who had a huge amount of food produce being traded with the surrounding countries, who would protect them if any idiot tried to invade them.

In the Land of Waterfalls' case, from what the Sandaime had heard, the Daimyo was on good terms with the Kage. It was highly likely he was living with the shinobi in Takigakure, in a place no foreigners could find easily.

The Land of Fire's Daimyo-Kage relationship was also on good terms, and had much more land and power than the other countries, thus the Twelve Guardian Shinobi was around to protect the Daimyo. All twelve were unique ninja in some way, and all equivalent to an ANBU in skill level, some elite ANBU.

But the Fire Daimyo was rather a pushover when it came to first-hand violence; he fought violently over land and trading like one would a board game, but couldn't stand the sight of battle. Most of his aggression was with other Daimyos, over trade and the like, but they knew as well as he did that war was never his goal.

That was mostly how the Fire Daimyo acquired so much wealth; no Konoha shinobi had to monitor him for ulterior motives during the last war, and all the Daimyos were willing to team up with someone who hated violence like he did.

The question of Takigakure was obvious: a military alliance would suffice to get the Daimyo in for his own trading arrangements. Konoha had made no major advances during the war into the Land of Waterfalls; skirmishes had erupted due to tension but neither invaded the other. To deal with the small country of Waterfalls would have been a waste of effort with four other large countries to contend with.

An alliance was very possible during peacetime, and wouldn't raise suspicion from Uchiha nor the people of Waterfalls.

Whether it would cause the other four large countries to consider the already-prosperous Konoha a threat was another story. Iwa was right next to Waterfalls, after all…

Still, there was a new path for Hiruzen and hope accompanied it.

* * *

**AN:**Timeskip in next chapter too, bringing us to the coup date, although maybe Sandaime has the solution…?

Anyway, I'm gonna write a list. I'm in a list mood. Yasha is a powerful character, but has some big weaknesses too. I'll compact the ones that have already been shown:  
(Remember, this can change later. He may work around weaknesses, he may gain new ones.)

Swarm usage/presence:  
\+ He can kill multiple targets or an area of them without a lot of effort  
\+ Swarms are telepathic and can communicate with any person on a subconscious level, including himself  
\+ Swarms regenerate his body if he just focuses chakra there (no chakra 'used', since it's not expelled, but protein/calcium/etc runs low)  
\+ Immune to nearly all genjutsu (ones placed on him are released after a few seconds automatically, less delay each time; ones placed on the environment are made unrealistic by vision wavering or such)  
\+ Immune to nearly all seals affecting chakra  
\+ Immune to most poisons – whether airborne, blood-carried, chakra-carried  
\+ Chakra and tenketsu are hidden to all canon doujutsu, movement cannot be predicted, although where his paths are is obvious  
\+ He can get them to target anything, not just people (although it requires much higher chakra usage and focus)  
\+ His swarms make it easier to detect/use chakra minutely, granting him very good chakra control  
[+/-] The swarms will kill all nearby people when he dies or runs out of chakra, enemies or allies  
[+/-] The swarms will also destroy all the flesh on his body  
[+/-] He intimidates people easily, and is naturally scary  
[+/-] The swarms tend to flood out for some reason when he's asleep…  
[+/-] The swarms also tend to gather in people he spends time near…  
\- Although doujutsu can't see his chakra, they can see the paths, and sensor-nin can still detect him  
\- The swarms are very aggressive and a mistake could lead to serious consequences  
\- High KI leaked when he uses any sort of chakra expelled ninjutsu, even Henge  
\- Naturally disliked/causes suspicion in all people he meets, due to bloodline's threatening nature  
\- Chakra suppression seals = limb loss and/or death  
\- Running out of chakra = loss of control of any swarms he's released, which may target allies or himself  
\- Swarms cannot be used on targets he doesn't mind killing  
\- They also cannot be used when he's nearby allies  
\- He doesn't know how to communicate with the swarms directly, so from their knowledge, he gets high intuition and very good guesses, but not outright mental facts  
\- Medical jutsu won't work on him, not even diagnosis

Mindreading:  
\+ Can mindread people with minimal chakra usage  
\+ Can remain sense-aware and can move it/see with _his own body_ during a weak connection (nothing on the target's senses)  
\+ Can only _vaguely_ sense _the target body's _movement and senses using a strong connection (nothing on his own body, not even pain is registered)  
\+ If the connection is missed, it takes him only about twenty seconds to recover; Yamanaka techniques can take minutes, but the swarms bring the chakra back.  
\- Mindreading requires focus and a couple of seals, thus has seconds' delay and distractions will disconnect him  
\- Target must be within sight when cast, and stay within range, away from obstacles  
\- Mindreading w/weak connection makes his body very sluggish (trying to move too quickly loses the connection)  
\- Mindreading w/strong connection means he cannot feel damage/movement to his real body _and_ loses control of it  
\- He cannot control the recipient's body at all, although he can send thoughts that might jar them  
\- Both mindreading levels require a physical pose that is rather apparent

Other:  
\+ Has second-hand knowledge of the future (no first-hand, at all; no memories of past timelines)  
\+ Has knowledge of what he found difficult in other timelines and how to work around them (although, only for what he worked on just past the Massacre – it was then he was originally sent back)  
\+ Has high Yin chakra, making him very good with genjutsu, and they have a lower cost for him  
\+ He is highly intelligent, observant, and manipulative  
\+ Has good intuition and instincts – is _literally_ a prodigy  
\+ He is naturally good at Henge due to the swarms maintaining the new form  
[+/-] Has only average genin reserves, nothing special there (next timeskip, two months, takes him to low chuunin)  
\- The Third Hokage's got his eye on you, kid  
\- Jounin Commander Shikaku Nara's got his eye on you, as well  
\- And the spy-master Jiraiya  
\- Even Kakashi's noticing his sensei's son has an suspicious outsider for a housemate  
\- Don't forget the lovely Orochimaru  
\- And the legendary, rather stressed prodigy Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Shisui  
\- And what's Danzō doing? Is he really putting all his attention on the Uchiha uneasiness?  
\- Remind me, who likes the Jinchūriki and his threatening friend again? Not most of Konoha…

…

Yasha has a _shedload_ of weaknesses. Damn. Well, he's definitely not a Gary Stu.  
Although, the TV Trope "Magnificent Bastard" applies to him, I found that page about two weeks ago. _hehe_

Do you think he's still OP, do you think he's too weak? That be my review question for you guys.

(Last review question results: People like the Japanese but want the English with it. Can do.)

Cya next week/in two weeks, folks!


	23. Uchiha murderers

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 23: Uchiha murderers**_

* * *

**AN:** Finally, the Uchiha massacre. It took 23 chapters of suspense, character building and integration, but the first canon plot point is finally here. The time-skip is kinda rough, because relationships are building, but will slow down the suspense of the massacre. But let's hop to it.

Enjoy the two subplots revealed in this chapter, too.

* * *

Sasuke groaned as he used his momentum to run up the tree and perch on a branch. Damn these lunch breaks. He had training he could be doing, if only they gave him a break at a different time to his group of fangirls.

Girls were weird, in Sasuke's view. If a boy liked you, he'd be straightforward about it, and ask to be your friend. When girls liked you, they squealed and hid in painfully obvious places, staring, and only approached when they had a group of similarly creepy girls. Sasuke was used to hiding in a tree each break now. He pretended it was evasion training, but really, he was tired of hearing high-pitched sounds. And the number of times he had to use Kawarimi…

"Hey, Sasuke-san."

Sasuke spun to the source of the noise, blinking. "Oh, Yasha," he gave the Uchiha-lookalike a grin, checking for Naruto but finding him nowhere in sight. "What's up?"

"We are," Yasha replied, twirling a kunai around. Sasuke blinked – it was glinting, a real metal one, and it looked sharp. _'Why does he have a real kunai at the Academy?' _He sent Yasha an assessing look, but the other boy was looking around as well, watching the fangirls run under the tree and straight past while swinging one leg lazily off the branch.

"Cool," Sasuke responded, and the conversation hit a lull. He waited for Yasha to talk, since despite Sasuke's efforts, if he sought Yasha out for a conversation, it was always short.

"Sasuke-san, want to go grab something to eat after school?"

"Sure," Sasuke responded quickly, before a thought hit him. "No one else invited?"

Yasha shrugged. "If Naruto tags along I'll bop him on the head. And any fangirls get bops as well."

"Cool." Sasuke nodded, turning away so Yasha wouldn't see his un-Uchiha-like grin.

"Teriyaki good?"

"Sure."

* * *

Shino watched as Yasha dropped down from the tree, holding something in one hand. As usual, as he watched his classmate from afar, the kikaichu in his body began to move inwards, hiding in the centremost part of his body, where it would take a considerably larger amount of effort to expel them into the air.

He would breed beetles that were immune to Yasha's effect, but he couldn't find a single one that was. His entire hive was subject to it.

Kikaichu beetles were not very self-willed, but if anything made them unwilling to obey, it was Yasha. It took at least twenty times the regular amount of chakra to send a _single beetle_ to investigate him. The insects just kept turning back around, skittering, being unwilling. It would be illogical to punish them, since the entire hive would need punishment.

This was his second investigation attempt; the first just died of unknown causes during Yasha's argument with Iruka-sensei.

Yasha was walking towards him, now, at a normal pace, but quite definitely heading to him. His insects were rather unhappy at that realisation and began to skitter inwards even further. It would be worrying if they could experience suffocation, but Shino knew they couldn't, not within his body at least.

"Yo, Shino!" Yasha called, holding whatever it was up. "You dropped something!"

Shino blinked, and concluded it was the correct response to walk towards someone who was going to give something to you. Upon closer inspection, the something was the beetle he had sent to Yasha. _'So he has noticed. And he didn't kill it? Unusual.'_

He accepted the beetle back onto his hand, and it scurried up his arm at high speed. "Thanks, Yasha-san."

Yasha nodded. "Beetles are cool. Can't stand a ton of them, though…" Yasha looked thoughtful as he trailed off. Shino felt a bit awkward in his silence as he felt the returned beetle made its way to his centre.

"How do your bugs feel about me, Shino-san?" Yasha suddenly asked.

_'Intuitive,'_ Shino noted. "They feel that you are a shadowy predator, and dislike your presence. If I may ask the nature of your bloodline?"

_'A predator…'_ Yasha mused. "It's called Death Release."

Shino's brow furrowed. "I see."

"In that case, I think we both need some conditioning, or we're both be useless if we went on a mission together." Yasha pointed out logically. "How about it?"

Shino blinked again. Yasha was offering to train with him, hardening himself against being in the presence of multiple insects, and in return, training Shino's insects to not be as petrified of him as they were now. "This is… acceptable. I will have to ask my father on how best to do this sort of conditioning."

"How many bugs can you put on me right now?" The brunette asked curiously.

Shino ordered the unwilling bugs out, and they grumbled and fussed. "They are trying to hide, so it is difficult to extract them."

"Aww, that's cute," Yasha said adoringly, looking at Shino's coat like he wanted to pet something.

"…" Shino didn't know how to respond to that, so he just backed away out of reach.

"Hey, Naruto!" Yasha called a few minutes later.

"What's up?" Naruto turned to face him, grinning widely. "Want to go get some ram-" He trailed off when he realised his friend's clothes were covered in moving beetles.

"Want a hug?" Yasha opened his arms with an inviting smile.

* * *

Danzō was particularly surprised by the latest suggestion. Hiruzen, the peace-loving, wears-heart-on-sleeve public figure, had laid out a plan for covert infiltration and manipulation of Takigakure.

An alliance, built off fake memories.

The war hawk re-read the proposal. Shisui was the only one suitable to be sent; he was the only one with a usable genjutsu. Itachi would (of course) receive a new guard from ANBU in place of Shisui, but that was meaningless. A solo mission of this importance was careless, but they could only send someone stronger, another ANBU – and Hiruzen suggested the black-mask.

Kakashi was the only ANBU who had a Sharingan bar Itachi, Shisui, and the black-mask. Just thinking of Hatake's betrayal made Danzō have to calm himself. If it wasn't for Kakashi, Danzō would have never raised any suspicion maintaining a second ANBU group.

The black-mask ANBU had had dual Sharingan since he joined ANBU, a possibility of even Mangekyō, but nothing confirmed; and implanted doujutsu or not, he had no known relationships with the Uchiha clan and he lodged on the outskirts of the village, not particularly close to the Uchiha compound.

Even if the black-mask did have Mangekyō, there was no real reason to think it would offer the same powers as Shisui. But his mission record had been perfect, his privacy and aura of power unmatched. Anyone that went on a mission with him spoke of his unmatched silent killing and infiltration methods.

His codename was Yūrei [Ghost], and he had no other name. He was perfect for a silent infiltration mission – it was his skill set. Danzō approved the addition to the team. But there was a trump card Danzō held, and although Hiruzen didn't know it, it was that same black-mask operative; he was in Root, and Danzō's most powerful member.

Danzō felt a smile cross his face, and for once he didn't school it. _'Perfect. Under the guise of a Takigakure mission, have Yūrei kill Shisui, pluck the Sharingan, and retreat back.'_

All Yūrei had to do was claim Shisui's death by Takigakure ninjas – that left Yūrei with the job of disposing of the body lest the Sharingan be captured. Leaving Yūrei to claim he had no time to pluck the Sharingan, and so just burned the whole body; it wouldn't be too surprising, they would be within enemy territory and surrounded on all sides.

It was too perfect. Hiruzen wouldn't question the loyalty of Yūrei, with his perfect mission record. Because ANBU missions were covert – and this really was the blackest of black ops – that left no Yamanaka who could walk through his mind, besides Fū Yamanaka. Who was, conveniently, also in Root.

All Danzō had to do was look angry that the mission failed, and Hiruzen would agree to use Fū to double-check the record, while Danzō remained without suspicion. And that would be the end of it; Yūrei's first mission failure.

And while Hiruzen and Itachi grieved, Danzō would take a Sharingan, attempt to quell Fugaku's tendencies – implant the second Sharingan (if the first perished from use on Fugaku), and get the Third to give up the position of Hokage to Danzō himself.

Yūrei's first mission 'failure' would lead to Danzō's successful ascension to the Hokage seat.

It was… just… _too_ perfect.

* * *

"Shisui-san," the Hokage greeted, "Itachi-san. Yūrei-san."

Shisui nodded, giving an uneasy sidelong gaze to the infamous Black Mask, the only one who hadn't removed his mask, and the only ANBU who didn't wear a white mask. Some would say it defeated the purpose of being anonymous, but they hadn't seen him in action. There was never anyone left alive to talk about the unusual colour.

His chakra was always suppressed and his Sharingan always active. If he wasn't an Uchiha, it was a testimony to his incredible chakra reserves. Shisui knew nothing about him other than he thrashed every other ANBU in kenjutsu [sword techniques]; having the doujutsu made him near-invincible when it came to the art of swordplay. Shisui hadn't been on missions with him before; Itachi had only been on one with him. The spunky Uchiha made a note to ask his stoic friend about that later.

The Hokage nodded carefully at all three of the kneeling figures. The council members looked on, faces apparently cold, but all held a quiet pride for these ninjas. Loyal, powerful, and willing to work from the darkness to ensure peace.

"I've received word from Jiraiya that they have news of Takigakure's location. It remains exceptionally difficult to infiltrate; there is an underwater system used for entry that is constantly monitored by sensor ninja. In addition, surrounding the village is a barrier, similar to the one around Konoha. Itachi, you've confirmed we have just over a month before the coup attempt?"

"Hai. They decided a date just within their last meeting," Itachi confirmed in a monotone.

The Hokage nodded. "For this mission, I will be sending Shisui, with Yūrei. The plan is to invoke an alliance with the Land of Waterfalls, an alliance seemingly initiated from them. Our response to treaty preparations will be primarily Uchiha. This will be a show of trust and I will ensure there is sufficient media coverage. If the Uchiha step down from the coup, the matter is over; if they remain hostile, we will make further preparations.

"Itachi, your task is to ensure the coup is quelled. Yūrei, you are to get Shisui into and out of Takigakure. Need I remind any of you, failures and breaches of security will result in war, if not civil war with the Uchiha," the Sandaime sighed, rubbing his face wearily, "then war with Takigakure. And it's easy enough to discern that we will overcome Takigakure, but that will put us in a land that borders with Iwa; so Iwa will be involved as well, and the whole mess could even start a Fourth Shinobi War."

There was no words spoken about the danger involved, as all who heard it knew the gravity of the situation. The village leader glanced around, taking in the icy determination, before he continued. "At best, a failure would mean the civil war continues and we have to compensate Takigakure for the infiltration attempt.

"But, success in this mission will mean Konoha remains at peace, and prospers further with an alliance. I won't be naïve enough to suggest world peace is likely, but it remains a possibility," the Hokage said, brightening moderately at the thought.

The two visible Uchiha's faces gained slight smiles. "Itachi, you will be likely to receive a new Uchiha observer, as Shisui will be outside of sight. I require no updates on the coup bar changes to the date, suspension of the plan, etcetera. In the meantime, I suggest you raise no further suspicion."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"The full plan including the location and access route of Takigakure is detailed in the scroll." The leader tossed it to Yūrei, whose hand blurred and he caught it smoothly. "At full body-flicker pace, it will take you three days to pass the border. You will be able to enter the hidden village by day five. However, the alliance and treaty arrangement procedures cannot be rushed too far, and that means time is still very tight. You should leave in one hour; take what equipment you need. Once you've confirmed the leader has responded to the genjutsu, you can leave immediately."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," all three responded simultaneously.

"Dismissed," the Hokage ordered.

* * *

Two Uchiha and Yūrei appeared outside the briefing room.

Yūrei glanced at them, his smooth yet gravelly voice both relaxing and tensing them. "The most supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

Itachi nodded his agreement. "I leave Shisui in your care, Yūrei-san."

With that, he flickered off, leaving the two alone. After discussing the scroll for a while, Yūrei left Shisui, who went after Itachi, and the two Uchiha met in a field.

"What do you think of Yūrei?" Itachi asked him worriedly.

"He's capable," Shisui admitted, frowning. "I don't know about his intentions, though. I hope to Kami they're good."

Itachi nodded, voicing his concern, "I've heard he has no love for the Uchiha, even though he has the Sharingan."

"About that: I couldn't read his chakra. He has some sort of seal under his armour. He's suppressing his chakra, so his chakra level remains undetectable, and even the doujutsu won't make his movements or network out until he releases the suppression. The seal would have to allow release or he wouldn't be able to do any jutsu at all."

"As expected from someone called Ghost…" Itachi mused, scratching his chin. "No other ANBU has it, so it's probably his own creation."

"A fuuinjutsu master?" Shisui echoed what he was essentially saying. "That would explain how he is an expert at infiltration. A seal to turn him into gas, or something…"

"Space-time seals are more likely." Itachi gave a rare grin at his over-imaginative friend, who pouted.

_'An Uchiha ANBU pouting… only Shisui could do that.'_ he smirked.

Shisui recovered quickly. "Still, space-time seals, this mission will be a blast."

Itachi hummed. "It's probably _only_ because Yūrei is so capable the Hokage is even considering sending you two to Takigakure… being the failure is a potential **_war_**."

"War…" Shisui repeated, his mind trailing back to seeing his parents leaving for the Second Shinobi War… never to return.

Itachi clapped him over the back, breaking his thoughts. "Well, I've been with Yūrei on only one mission. If anything, he lives up to his name. I can't discuss full details, obviously, but…" his dark eyes drifted back to the mission, "I checked the perimeter for two seconds and he had already gotten inside, killed the target, and gotten back out, by the time I looked back. And, the place had a chakra seal."

Shisui blinked. If someone did that, they were beyond talented, hiding their methods even from Itachi's Sharingan. His friend was no slouch. "Yūrei's an ANBU Captain as well, right?"

Itachi nodded. "Hai. Has been since before I was joined. He was leading that mission, one of my first ANBU missions… deep into Kumo. Not a man lost, not even injuries… a perfect success."

Shisui's usual carefree grin began to form. "Good. At least I'm in good hands."

"I'm not sure, though, Shisui. I have a bad feeling about this mission…" Itachi warned, brow furrowed.

"Oi, oi. Don't start jinxing it. I was feeling pretty good about it until you did that…" Shisui complained, clouting his friend over the head.

The duo chuckled together briefly, the unsaid question of if it would be their last time. "Well, I guess I'll see you in a couple of weeks." Itachi sighed, running his hand through his hair.

"I'll do my best to keep you and Sasuke safe, Itachi. You can count on me," Shisui promised, making his friend smile. "

Two swirls of leaves marked the two splitting up – one to report to Fugaku then leave on a mission, and one to his otōto.

* * *

"So, Danzō wants me to fail the mission…" Yūrei mused.

He had a choice. Unlike most of Root, he had no seal on his tongue forcing him to secrecy and enforcing his cooperation with Danzō's wishes. When the time came for his sealing, he had sent a Kage Bunshin to the sealing room (he was used to sending one everywhere rather than risking his own self, so people thought half his chakra was his regular chakra level).

He wasn't sure if Danzō had worked it out, but it would be nigh impossible to capture the Ghost and apply a seal forcibly; not to mention, he had been studying fuuinjutsu since his teenage years, writing a counter-seal was a good possibility.

Personally, it didn't take a genius to work out what this mission was meant for. The Uchiha getting their panties in a bunch. The Hokage didn't even need to have bother saying it explicitly.

So… proceed with the mission and get them into Takigakure? Kill Shisui before or after mission objective? Dispose of him completely or pull out his eyes as per Danzō's request?

He had time to think, after all; five days.

* * *

**_AN: Time-skip!_**

While the mission transpired in the background, Yasha grew closer to Sasuke, although he never sparred and rarely held a long conversation when Naruto was around.

Shino talked with Shiho, his father, about conditioning, but his father pointed out there was no reason to condition unless Yasha was planning to turn on the Leaf, or he was going to be on his genin team. Training was thus postponed until after both Yasha and Shino graduated.

* * *

The sun rose, casting tentatively warm rays over the red and green rooftops of Konoha. An old man who had recently woken up observed the slow awakening of the small city. Small clouds of tobacco-laced smoke formed as a fond smile grew.

This was the village he worked so hard to protect. This was why he fought battles, wept tears, persisted through agonising pain. This village… was his home.

Two brief flares, then a flicker landed behind him. He turned.

"Mission failure, Hokage-sama."

The colour drained out of the Third Hokage's face in seconds. "How?!" he croaked, slumping into the chair.

Yūrei didn't let a sliver of emotion enter his tone. "Operative Shisui successfully infiltrated and placed the genjutsu. However, this caused severe weakening. The Kage has made preparations for an alliance but the truce will be too late for the purpose of preventing the coup. In addition, Shisui has fallen in duty. I have retrieved his body."

"Oh… Kami-sama…" The Hokage gazed at the scroll with the black ribbon tied around it. He didn't even want to know how Itachi would react to this.

"The objectives were completed but will not be useful to avert the problem. I recommend evacuation of Konoha…"

"No, Yūrei," the Hokage snapped, quelling his emotions. "That will not be necessary. Your mission is over. Bring the black scroll to the Uchiha compound and return to barracks."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the infamous Ghost said, vanishing from the room.

* * *

It was pure coincidence that Itachi saw Yūrei flickering past on the way to the Uchiha compound. Pure coincidence.

"What happened?!" Itachi snapped, pulling him aside with Sharingan blazing.

"I'm sorry, Itachi-san," Yūrei said quietly, unfurling the scroll.

He watched as a person appeared. Uchiha Shisui. One eye was a pale white colour, the other locked into a pinwheel.

"He… completed the mission?" Itachi said with a strained voice.

"Hai," Yūrei confirmed easily, "But Takigakure's truce attempt will come too late. It's likely the coup attempt will even drive the truce off completely."

"So overall… a failure?!" Itachi asked very quietly.

Yūrei didn't respond, just watched as the other Uchiha slumped to his knees, his eyes evolving into a spiral. _'As I hoped.'_

* * *

"There is only one solution left, Itachi, if you don't want to risk your younger brother in the war that will follow," Danzō insisted. "Not even Konoha will suffice to protect him in a war."

Even that wasn't sufficient to convince the Uchiha heir, so Danzō spun his trump card: a lie. "This is an order from the Hokage himself."

The Uchiha slowly nodded. When he spoke, his tone was icy. "I will perform my duty."

A flicker of movement beside him, and another masked figure kneeled. "You called for me, Danzō-sama?"

"Yes, you are to assist Itachi, by the Hokage's order."

* * *

Yasha smirked at the Uchiha toddler who was currently losing to him at Snap.

Said boy huffed. "I think you're cheating!"

"No… how the hell do you even cheat at Snap, anyway?"

"You're stealing my cards!" Ryūji insisted.

"Ninjas are meant to be sneaky," Yasha countered, flipping over the next card.

"Sneaking, not cheating!"

"You've never heard of subterfuge then…"

"Subter-what?"

As Yasha delved into a long description, he remained vigilant of movement in the street. In fact, it would be safe to say he wasn't paying any attention to what he was saying to Ryūji at all. His thoughts were completely elsewhere.

_'Today is the coup date?'_

He had only realised it when he had arrived at Ryūji's house. He had been preparing, but the last few days he was so busy he didn't really have time to think about it.

There was no tunnel to the safe house. There was no anything. He felt grossly unprepared.

He had rented the kids' hideout, stocked it up with toddler/baby-care items from what he remembered from the orphanage, but that was the extent of his preparations. He wasn't prepared and he wasn't sure he could ever be.

He was toying with death here. Itachi would be attacking everything in sight – man, woman, child. And if he was just another figure, he would get a shuriken before he knew the ANBU was nearby.

He had to move quickly.

Perhaps conveniently, his current babysitting house was the one furthest from the village centre – it meant he would only need to go fewer and fewer distances. Or maybe it was his subconscious arranging it without him really acknowledging it.

The streets were emptying – all the shinobi in the coup meeting, all the civilians retiring to bed. Yasha's attention turned back to the child. If a non-Itachi caught him running out with the kid, and detained him, that person would soon be attacked by Itachi himself.

If Itachi himself caught him then Itachi would just knock him out, assuming he identified him – which was likely since Yasha's chakra was apparently black to the Sharingan, so easy to notice and ID him.

Yasha was no Uchiha, and the homicidal insanity that Itachi was pretending to have was targeting just every Uchiha – the insanity was that he was using the clan as a means to test himself. Yasha, a pre-genin and not an Uchiha, was exempt.

Of course, Itachi might kill Yasha anyway, because insanity, but then, so could any Uchiha shinobi finding him kidnapping an Uchiha kid.

Yasha knew all the shinobi would be at the meeting – that left his routes through the compound and nearby unpatrolled. ANBU didn't cover that area because the Uchiha Police did, and the Police left it unmonitored during the secret meetings – because no one bar the Uchiha knew about the meeting time, so in theory no criminal would capitalise on that. There were easier targets than Uchiha civilians anyway. And requesting ANBU to patrol inside the Uchiha compound to fill the gap in their security while they held their hidden meetings was stupid.

In short, bar civilians, there was no one who would be watching the streets as he ran for his life. Itachi wouldn't risk new Mangekyō appearing, so he'd strike the meeting area first, taking out all the shinobi and all Sharingan-bearers, then heading to the civilians.

Yasha had no way of working out if Itachi would mow them down with ease or struggle for a couple of hours; he knew he had managed to take them down in all the resets, however. That man was exceptionally powerful if he had done that on his own.

Since Itachi nor the Uchiha would want to explain the gathering/reason behind their battle, they wouldn't do anything that would be seen by the ANBU. So Yasha could logically expect no trigger. Just one moment, there would be peace, the next, a hail of shuriken.

Civilians wouldn't cost Itachi much time; there were a lot but he could solid-clone himself, any ANBU could – how else could ANBU be given solo missions and have to watch their own back?

Itachi would be fighting the civilians weakened from fighting the shinobi – assuming he didn't manage to destroy all shinobi in a surprise gas attack or something.

_'Well…'_ Yasha fingered the knockout tags in his pocket idly, _'Best put these to use. If they have a peaceful solution, and I wasn't paying attention, I'll be an idiot for a while, but the Hokage won't exactly be caught off guard. He all but predicted I'd save kids, so he'll stop the fallout from kidnapping. I can always bluff and say I used mind-reading accidentally on an Uchiha shinobi and got mislead.'_

So, Henge or no to escape? He'd use chakra a ton, but it would disguise the kid he was carrying, and speed him up. If he didn't use it, he'd have a bundle to disguise… something civilians wouldn't be too perturbed to see rushing back and forth. He had multiple kids to save, after all…

His eyes trailed over the room._ 'Picture frame, picture, wallpaper, sofa, cushions, packed futon, books, curtain rail, curtain rings, curtain, carpet, bin, pencils, paper, cards…_

_'Shit, there's nothing. No disguise at all. Well, not in this room, relax, geez.'_

His gaze turned to the kid, who was giving him questioning looks after his speech about what subterfuge was trailed off. He could always be straight with the brat – well, more like partially straight. A partial truth, get the kid to run in plain sight alongside him… if there was no shinobi it wouldn't be questioned. Since he looked Uchiha, even less suspicion than usual. Yasha was also vaguely well-known, for his cheap babysitting rates. Being with a kid, keeping them entertained, wouldn't be at all out of character.

The kid, maybe not well-known; if he was, and the civilians saw someone running with him on the opposite way to his home… _'Damn, if only I knew Kage Bunshin. I'd totally abuse that now. Well, when wouldn't I… Maybe I'm just over-thinking it. Civilians are civilians, not paranoid shinobi. Take the brat piggybacking and no one will blink an eye, and the only thing to worry about is those civilians right next to the gate.'_

Civilians, beside the gossips, left suspicion to the shinobi. When someone can literally have a conversation beside you using a genjutsu to make you not hear them, well… it kinda made it pointless to be a suspicious civilian.

_'Who stares out their window during night hours anyway? Or spends their time thinking about whose child's running footsteps they hear? Well, definitely not the Uchiha. They are arrogant, remember? They trust their shinobi to protect them because their shinobi are the best. In their opinion.'_

Whether the opinion was true or not, the fact is, Yasha had psyched himself up. Two minutes later, he and the toddler held a race to the hideout, soon followed by a piggyback when the brat ran out of steam.

* * *

"Yūrei-san."

"Itachi-san," the black-mask responded cordially.

Itachi sighed, knowing this aloof killer would be his only link to the village soon. "I probably shouldn't inform you of him, but it is our mission. I have one more person who will be participating in the fight."

Footsteps sounded behind them as a figure landed, dropping from a swirling hole in the sky. Neither flinched, as they turned to face him, as Itachi spoke. "I need to inform you about… Madara."

Yūrei's Sharingan widened a fraction.

* * *

Yasha frowned. He kept saying 'coup date', but it wasn't the coup date. It was the **massacre** date. There was no reason to think the coup was going to be attempted today, nor that there was a meeting today.

Yasha had noticed two shinobi strolling about as he ran; not on watch, but nonetheless active. Neither had Sharingan activated, and neither really noticed him, but that was irrelevant. However, the usual gate guards were absent, so he got to the kids' hideout without incident.

"Ryūji. I'll be back in a minute, hmm? You just go to sleep." Yasha laid the kid carefully down on the ground, the toddler's pout freezing when Yasha pushed a knockout seal onto his head and fired it up. Ryūji's eyes rolled back and he slumped bonelessly to the ground.

"Shit…" Yasha said breathlessly, staring at the slumped kid, "that was way too powerful, and it's one of the smallest tags they had in stock."

He stared for a good while, before he slapped himself and focused again, moving the toddler into the recovery position while being careful not to dislodge the seal. With a sigh, he pulled the front door shut behind him. It was a bad, and mostly empty neighbourhood, but he didn't lock up.

Tonight was going to involve a lot of running – and he still hadn't got his breath back from rescue one.

* * *

"Madara…?" Yūrei inspected at the spiral-masked man's single Sharingan with his own pair.

"Yūrei. I have heard about you, and your questionable Uchiha origin." Obito gave him a dour look. Obito had been the black sheep of the Uchiha clan, so he was hardly inclined to be angry whether Yūrei's Sharingan was implanted by force, implanted willingly, or inherited Sharingan. But as 'Madara', he would be somewhat interested, although Madara too abandoned his clan along with Konoha.

The black mask hid the chakra signature of his eyes, like his body's was hidden, so there was probably seals. At any rate Obito couldn't identify if the eyes' DNA/chakra patterns matched. If Yūrei had Mangekyō, that's when Obito would start getting interested.

"My Uchiha origin, or possible lack thereof is not relevant to this mission, Madara," Yūrei reminded him, a small humourless smile behind his mask. "I have been tasked the same as Itachi."

Itachi nodded, all trace of emotion stomped to the ground. "I will be the one who deals with my family. Madara, you wish to kill everyone here, and Yūrei, you are apathetic to who you kill."

Obito nodded shortly, the motion copied by Yūrei.

"Everyone dies eventually," Yūrei replied, his tone cool.

"I have a map of all the shinobi and civilian sections. Memorise as you will, it will be burned after. Yūrei, you are to remain silent about Madara's involvement in the mission."

Yūrei turned his gaze to Itachi, frowning. "Danzō won't be pleased."

'Madara' rolled his eyes. Interfering war hawk.

Itachi shrugged disinterestedly. "It's not relevant anyway. Madara can take care of himself, and he won't leave a trace or be caught."

"Definitely not." Obito smirked. Kamui left that a definite. In an open area, it was difficult to teleport with Kamui – but buildings, walls he could phase through and then teleport behind, his escape was all but guaranteed.

Plus, there were Zetsu spores on him. They wouldn't interfere unless Obito was about to die; their job was to be scattered to note who stole Sharingan, after the battle. Any Mangekyō would be pocketed by them for the real Madara's resurrection, in case he needed it.

Having them around during the battle would lead to a high chance of them dying during the crossfire, leaving a very peculiar corpse; one which wouldn't exactly say Madara on it (if anything, it'd say Orochimaru, ironically enough), but Itachi's mission would fail… and Itachi would blurt out the secret of Madara's existence far too early.

Not that Obito couldn't kill Itachi now, but not without extreme difficulty. Obito's Mangekyō was weaker and Itachi even had a margin to use a forbidden Mangekyō technique, since he had two eyes.

Yūrei was another reason Obito couldn't attack. A complication, but if he was one of Danzō's dogs… no matter. He was definitely strong, though; he had confidence and strength practically radiating from him, despite the complete lack of a chakra presence. _'Maybe I should task Zetsu to track him down later…'_

"Fine," the black-mask ANBU said curtly, straightening. "So, don't touch Itachi's family, wipe out all other Uchiha, keep it covert, and Madara was not here." His gaze flickered up to the spiral-masked ninja and narrowed. "I will assume Madara is a Konoha-nin or a mercenary who can be trusted."

_'Nothing further from the truth,'_ Itachi thought, but he held his tongue. Obito did too, realising that the false assumption would be the only reason Yūrei would keep his presence a secret. Although Obito doubted anyone could do anything significant in response to Yūrei's report, no reason to risk the extra attention.

Yūrei nodded. "You two start north-east and south-east. I'll handle the west."

"That's the closest to the village," Obito murmured, not objecting. It'd be more fun to wipe out the east. The prison and the Police Station were there. Yūrei had the mostly civilian section, then.

"Yūrei can handle it," Itachi assured him, knowing Madara was not to be trusted at any cost; if Yūrei was attacked, all Itachi knew was Ghost was a very powerful ANBU, and that he was more than capable of using his infiltration and stealth skills to vanish once he'd attracted the attention of the village's ANBU… which would most likely lead to Sasuke being caught in the crossfire.

"Let's go."

All three vanished in an instant.

* * *

_'Fuck, fuck, fuck…'_ Yasha swore, running at top speed as sounds of combat came from about twenty metres behind him.

The kid he was carrying shrieked shortly, blood spraying from his throat where a shuriken was now sticking out.

Yasha quickly dropped him onto the ground, reaching to his pockets as fast as he could and drawing the two kunai. It felt painfully slow as a person flashed into view ten metres in front of him. He wasn't sure what Itachi had planned, now he was obviously aware of what was going on.

Itachi gazed down at him with an unreadable expression as Yasha wielded the kunai and began to leak darkness chakra, with KI off the roof to match. The ex-ANBU's eyes widened at the sheer power behind it and the rapid darkening of the area around him.

They stared at each other as the kid coughed for breath, gargling blood from his throat. He wouldn't make it, Yasha could tell from the way the darkness chakra was mostly focusing on him

"How many?" Itachi finally asked.

"Seven, all too young to remember. I'll hide them and reintegrate over time," Yasha responded shortly, heart racing. "I'm no idiot."

Itachi smiled faintly, although Yasha couldn't see his eyes' expression beyond the Mangekyō. "That… I never doubted. Please watch my otōto."

He blurred in front of Yasha and a sharp pain went through his neck. The kunai he had been ready to slice with in an instant hadn't moved an centimetre, before the brunette collapsed onto the dead infant's skeleton.

Itachi flinched as the memories of a ripped-apart shadow clone returned, and a faint smile played on his lips as he flicked the blood off his sword to the ground for the final time.

_'No,'_ he corrected himself, _'not the final time. There is still one household to visit.'_

Steeling himself for a few seconds, he hopped onto the telephone pole at the end of the Uchiha compound, kneeling as his eyes devolved back to their regular three tomoe pattern. He could hear a child's footsteps approaching.

* * *

"Oh Kami," The Third breathed in shock as most of the ANBU flickered behind him, suppressing their reactions with varying levels of success. They had picked up the pace as they felt KI off the scale in the distance.

The usually discreetly lit streets, designed for minimal ability for people to hide within it, were covered in corpses. There was everyone from infants to grandparents piled up, soulless eyes gazing at nothing, expressions fixed into shock, fear or anger.

Shuriken littered the bodies and the Third blanched again as he saw a kid who couldn't be much more than three hanging halfway through a window, blood thickly staining his head and slowly dripping from his hands.

He shuddered after a couple of seconds, bringing himself back rapidly. "Look for survivors. Ensure all eyes here are destroyed. Check for live ones."

The ANBU, professional black ops, took only a few seconds themselves to recollect and bark, "Hai, Hokage-sama," before they spread out in an instant, rapidly dispersing. As much as the Hokage hated to admit it…

"Hokage-sama!" one barked, a note of urgency as she hovered over one of the boy, collapsed over what looked like an infant's skeleton. Hiruzen flickered to her side in an instant, lifting up the Uchiha and in an instant realising who it was.

"Yasha-san?"

The boy's eyelids fluttered and he peered out at the Hokage through barely-open eyes, still glinting with some sort of sadness. "Gomen…" And he went limp with a quiet exhale.

The Third's heart clenched. He had forgotten all about Yasha's plans a few weeks after the failed interrogation attempt and the time Yasha apparently expected something to happen had passed… but Yasha had been more observant and gone through with his rescue attempt. He had been the only one quick enough to respond, and he was a damn Academy student, not even a genin.

He passed the boy to the two waiting ANBU medics. "He's not an Uchiha, and his bloodline may resist healing. Do what you can and get him to the hospital."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," they both echoed, green light appearing on their palms as they laid him down carefully to do the initial assessment.

Sarutobi could see Yasha had been carrying a very young child and he or she had died from his bloodline during his fight with Itachi. He grimaced; how hard had Yasha fought to get out with the kid alive? No injuries on him, but then his bloodline regenerated them anyway. Maybe that was the only reason he was still alive, as the regeneration wasn't well known, and for obvious reasons most of his details were highly classified.

"Hokage-sama, there are some eyes missing already, we've discovered three sets missing so far."

The Hokage swore out loud and knew then this was an opportunity _someone_ had taken up on. Not Yasha, that was for sure, he was caught flatfooted and his alibi was literally right next to him. Glancing at the advisors, he noted Danzō's expression, which surprisingly enough looked just as agitated as his own. For someone who was careful to appear emotionless and cold at all times, an emotion like that wasn't faked. This wasn't going according to whatever _his_ plans were, either.

Well, judging from the surprisingly high number of ANBU that had joined them on the way to the compound, it was clear his Root forces had only been as quick as Hiruzen's in the response. _'But then who…'_

"Hokage-sama, one more survivor! Uchiha Sasuke!"

As Hokage, he knew of the clan heads' children… and the village leader's countenance paled even further. _'It can't be…Itachi…'_

There was a cracking sound from beside them as Danzō's grip on his cane tightened, although more out of shock than anger. His thoughts were racing at an uncommon haste. _'How could he dispose of the __**entire**__ clan?! He and Yūrei was meant to cause chaos by the time we arrived. Then Yūrei would simply erase my tracks by putting Itachi down, leaving me to take my selection of bodies with their Sharingan. If Sasuke's still here, it was Itachi, but then who took the eyes? Who did he get help from? Not Kumo…?'_

"Detecting trace amounts of an unknown scent, Hokage-sama. Should we pursue?"

"Two of you, track only. Do _not_ engage."

It would be two hours before the trace amounts all around the compound were filtered to nothing; whoever had gotten in had assisted with the murdering the Uchiha and had taken several numbers of eyes. It was like they appeared, fought without wounding themselves nor concealing their scent, then simply vanished the same way. The rumours about someone infiltrating the Uchiha compound were true, and they had contacted Itachi somehow…

* * *

Three figures blurred into sight, drawn into the same location by some unseen decision.

"An impressive attack," Yūrei contemplated thoughtfully, watching Amaterasu burn through the Police Station. Obito silently nodded his agreement, cursing Itachi in his head – his Mangekyō was definitely superior in aggressive purposes. An incredibly strong genjutsu, Tsukuyomi and now Amaterasu. Obito's Kamui would make the latter barely a problem, but it had very poor attack properties by comparison to the inextinguishable black flame.

"That's not what I want to hear right now!" Itachi almost snarled, gripping his agonised eye.

Yūrei had managed to stop the Mangekyō bleeding with some advanced medical jutsu a minute back, but use of the medical chakra that close to his eyes had forced Itachi to deactivate his Sharingan completely.

The way Madara had eyed Itachi during his deactivated state made Itachi very sure that if Yūrei hadn't been around while it was deactivated, the Uchiha heir would probably be dead. He owed the infamous, completely-anonymous Ghost two big favours now.

"Moving on." Yūrei barely seemed tired, that was Root for you, but his voice had the edge of fatigue to it as he summarised again. "Danzō-sama will not be informed of your presence, 'Madara', as per our agreement. I will, however, have to inform him Itachi has awoken Mangekyō, presumably due to Shisui's demise. This Amaterasu cannot be implied to someone else and it would be a waste of chakra for you to remove the flames now."

Itachi nodded, gripping his eye. The pain was like tiny razors stabbing at every single vein; even his ANBU training to compartmentalise the pain and ignore it was hard-pressed. He had chosen to wipe the whole Police Station with it. The building had the most shinobi, the most Sharingan, and this would ensure the eyes vanished with them; he didn't trust Danzō nor Madara to not steal them.

The black-masked figure turned to the swirl-masked one. "Madara, your presence is no longer necessary. Thank you for your assistance."

"My pleasure." Obito smirked. It was so satisfying to destroy the clan that had ostracised him, not that the life mattered now. Any amount he could attack Konoha, right under the nose of their Hokage, he would gladly accept.

The two kept expectantly silent for a while, and Obito realised the thanks was a goodbye. "I'll be seeing you soon…" he warned as the swirling dimension took him.

Yūrei snorted as soon as he was gone, making a few hand seals and pulling out a paper seal, charging it and slapping it onto the ground. A pulse of wind seemed to flicker past the two, and suddenly all noise from outside stopped. Itachi stayed in his place; Yūrei hadn't attacked him instead of healing, so he was interested in what his game was.

"That was _not_ Madara. He's nowhere near his power level." Yūrei had a smirk in his tone.

Itachi blinked, looking up at Yūrei with his uncovered onyx-black eye, but before he could comment, the Ghost continued, "Due to your missing-nin status, I will be forced to publically deny my presence here… once you speak with the Hokage personally for the report. I can arrange some visits to other people covertly on your behalf."

"What?" Itachi was stunned and didn't think before he continued, "Wasn't it your job to kill me afterwards? Didn't Danzō order it?"

"Yes, it is," Yūrei admitted. "But you're a man of hidden talents, and the Mangekyō will be capable of overpowering me. I can claim an abort of that objective due to it. It would not be a mission failure since the primary objective is quelling the Uchiha. Your death is probably just Danzō's personal request, and not something from the Hokage at all. I don't think your loyalty was ever in question."

The two were silent for a while. Itachi was beginning to realise why 'Madara' had been keen to kill him earlier. The Mangekyō was truly something if even Yūrei was admitting being overwhelmed by it.

The black-mask spoke again, a smooth and gravelly tone with just a hint of exhaustion. "Danzō said the Hokage sent this mission, but I would prefer you report to the Hokage himself, as I want to confirm it. I have arranged a shadow clone to bring the Hokage outside sensors' detection; you will report to him there."

"Fine." Itachi nodded, he couldn't fault that. He wanted to see the Hokage's face when he gave the report for this mission, and to ensure Sasuke would be protected by Konoha once he left (or else). "And of Madara?"

"He should not be capable of hearing this conversation, due to the paper seal." Yūrei pointed at the small seal stuck to the ground. "This seal obstructs all sound-waves, vibrations and light from exiting; bar a soundwave travelling at a very select angle, allowing us two to communicate. It's a high chakra cost, particularly with the noises happening outside, but I can maintain it during your report to the Hokage as well. Madara can be kept secret, I will not tell anyone of him, but you are free to distribute that knowledge as you choose."

Itachi nodded again. "Fine. Where are we meeting the Hokage?"

"You'll need four Shunshin to get to him past the ANBU in the compound. I will escort you…"

* * *

"Hokage-sama, mission accomplished," Itachi said coldly as the paper seal came to life.

"Accomplished?" the Hokage repeated, his face falling even further.

Itachi frowned, something squirming in the back of his mind. "Per your order, I have pacified the Uchiha clan. I would ask that you keep Sasuke safe…"

"Oh, no. No, no, no." The Hokage grabbed his head in his hands, stuttering. "No."

Itachi blinked in confusion, starting to get concerned despite the fact the Mangekyō was giving him a splitting headache. _'The Hokage is denying Sasuke protection?'_

"Who gave you that order? It was not mine!" Hiruzen snapped.

Itachi's face fell in shock. "It was… Danzō… he said it was your order. He sent Operative Yūrei with me to do it…" Itachi's heart hit the depths as he took in the horrified expression on the Kage's face. Rage began to boil inside him as he realised what had happened.

"Yūrei! You believed he was telling the truth?!" the Hokage snapped in anger.

"It is not the first time Danzō has assigned me missions," Yūrei said calmly, still maintaining the seal granting them a hidden conversation.

"Danzō does not have the authority! Unless… you are in Root?" A lightbulb turned on in the Hokage's head. Root was not outlawed officially; still a very secret matter, but the Hokage trusted Danzō to be responsible with that group after his warning. This was going too far.

"I am in that group, yes," Yūrei freely admitted it. "Itachi is not, but… that's not the issue here."

"Indeed. Itachi, I'm sorry, but he fooled you." Itachi was quivering in silent rage now. "That mission order was not from me. I will dissolve Root for this… _despicable_ crime. But, I cannot do much more. You understand…" he trailed off, not wanting to say how much his hands were tied… by politics of all things.

Itachi was pulling on every technique he knew to stay calm, the dying motions of hundreds of people flashing through his eyes, all recorded by the Sharingan permanently. He had been tricked. _'But…'_

"What about Sasuke?" he said, his tone exhausted beyond words. _'I'm a missing-nin for this. Danzō… Kami-sama damn him, why did I trust that man's word? Just because Yūrei was around to assist me and he didn't question it? Fuck, all this mess because of one damn assumption…'_

"I will protect Sasuke," The Hokage assured, his tone strengthened with the promise. "_Definitely_. And I _will_ ensure Danzō keeps his hands off him. At the first opportunity, the first evidence, Danzō will be brought to trial and I'll _have his damn head_." He ended with almost a snarl.

Itachi nodded, trying his hardest to keep his composure.

The ANBU Ghost coughed. "Danzō arranged for Itachi to be incriminated, but I to be separate from the blame. I was not spotted by any survivors, so it remains up to your order, Hokage-sama. Shall I also become a missing-nin?"

The Hokage blinked at him. Never before had someone spoke of becoming hunted by all five nations so easily. Still, this man was ANBU Captain since end of the Second Shinobi War, and in all that time, not a single mission failure, barely a flaw to speak of by his teammates. If there was an ANBU commander role, he would be in it, but since the Hokage was the only person who assigned missions for ANBU, there was no seat for him.

It was Yūrei who had managed to quell the Uchiha uprising four years ago, delaying it to the current time, when the pride had eventually flared up again. It had cost him his relationship with the Uchiha, and he was ousted in all but name, but he didn't seem bothered by it; he had no relatives and no apparent friends in the Uchiha.

Only Kakashi was remotely close to being friends; the two owed each other favours from their ANBU assassination missions. But Yūrei made no efforts to socialise, even for an ANBU.

The Hokage shook his head decisively. "It wouldn't be any sort of justice to have you become a missing-nin. Not Itachi, either; I would love for both of you two to remain here, but Sasuke has already seen Itachi – and the amount of public outrage having the Uchiha slayer here would be nothing short of riots and assassination attempts for him.

"So, Yūrei, I would like for you and Itachi to remain in contact. I will get him to give you some of Jiraiya's contacts, and if Jiraiya has an infiltration mission, he will assign it to you. Yūrei will be tasked with watching Yasha and Sasuke. If Danzō tries to work behind my back, he will no doubt keep you in his operations, Yūrei. If so, you are to inform me on what Root is doing and anything that can be used to bring him to trial or dissolve it for good."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Yūrei nodded shortly, his chakra beginning to run low from the seal.

Itachi hesitated. "About Yasha, do you have anything on who sent him?"

"No," the Hokage admitted. "Yasha's been holding his friendship with Naruto as both carrot and stick, plus he knew of Uchiha coup attempt. I've tried Yamanaka and can't use genjutsu or mind seals to remove his knowledge of the coup attempts, so… like it or not, he's untouchable as well as dangerous. Hence, your mission Yūrei. Neither of them know any solid clone techniques… I want them monitored."

Yūrei nodded again. Use of a shadow clone would be fine for watching two pre-genin.

The village leader turned to the rigid Uchiha. "And Itachi; the only clue I have on who sent him was that he looked like a younger Kakashi, including covered eye, but could be a Henge; he called himself Zack, but could be a pseudonym as well; and last time he was spotted was a month ago, near Yasha's origin, an Land of Fire orphanage. Jiraiya is investigating for further details, so you can correspond with him, but Yasha as an information source is drained already."

"Itachi-san," Yūrei spoke up, giving him a nod. "I suggest you enforce your protection of Sasuke onto Danzō; threaten him. Pretend to have overcome me, but not caused severe damage; I will report to Danzō soon after and correspond. That bastard's overstepped his bounds."

"Only too happy to." Itachi growled, as his eyes evolved to Mangekyō again. In some background part of his brain, he wondered what Yūrei really was feeling under that professional tone. Yūrei had always been Itachi's ANBU role model, not that he had told anyone, and once again Yūrei had surpassed him in keeping his emotions in check.

And to think, Yūrei was betraying his clan for the second time, for the sake of the village. He had even complimented the Amaterasu, like some cold-hearted killer, yet… there was morals there. He hadn't lost control of his emotions, but he was obviously incensed by what Danzō had done and his loyalty seemed to the Hokage foremost. Sasuke would be in good hands.

A few minutes later, a bandaged elderly man got another nasty shock. A few minutes after that, Itachi paused outside the border, making the required password seals, then fled from the village.

* * *

Yasha woke groggily. His head was swimming, but he turned his head, gazing at the clock he heard. His vision kept blurring, but he finally pinned the time down.

_'Twenty three minutes past six. AM or PM? Probably AM… damn, Itachi hits hard… I don't even want to know what kind of mess __**his**__ head's in right now. Probably ice-cold emotionless lock-up. And no Shisui to be found, not now that he's dead.'_

Yasha's gaze drifted left and he was thankful he hadn't spoken out loud. An ANBU was standing there, goat masked, not moving a muscle.

Then Yasha finally took in the room, analysing escape routes and structure flaws without really trying to. _'Room is rectangular. Door at the narrow end to my left, window at my right, further away. Pale green painted walls. I'm not handcuffed or restrained. Window is narrow to make access difficult, looks like it's reinforced glass, and has bars across it. A hospital in a prison?'_

Yasha reconsidered his lack of restraints and dismissed it. _'Sure, I probably couldn't take the ANBU, but prisoner policy wouldn't be to keep criminals together, and there's another bed further on. Occupied, can't make out who by. I'm hooked up to an IV tube, as is other occupant. Beds are simple metal, reasonably comfortable but stiff. Bed-side drawers with vases of flowers, looks decorational, not a get-well gift._

_'Nah, not a prison. It's too dangerous to leave me right next to a shatterable vase if they're suspicious of me. Shards are dangerous. The security wasn't to keep me in, but to keep others out. Weird they're putting me with someone, then._

_'If it's 6PM the day after, the youngest babies are probably dead…'_

"Shit," he said out loud. The ANBU didn't even react. Yasha sighed disappointedly. Hoping for more effect, he started playing with the IV feed, eventually pulling the thing out. He inspected the end, which was no longer spewing fluids, and idly wondered how it worked. _'Interesting, the swarms aren't removing the feed. It must be fine then…'_

A click from the door, and a grey-haired white-coat man made his way in, the ANBU watching his movements closely while making no attempt to hide their suspicion. _'Kabuto, isn't it? Isn't he some sort of Danzō/Orochimaru/Akatsuki spy? Those glasses look ridiculously large.'_

Kabuto made his way to the nearer bed, making hand seals and hovering over the person's chest, then his head.

About five seconds later he sighed in defeat and scribbled something on a clipboard. "No progress, still stable," he said, although Yasha wasn't sure who he was saying that to, since the ANBU didn't acknowledge him. Then again, this ANBU hadn't acknowledged anything. The apocalypse would go by, the building would explode around him and the ANBU would just be standing there rigidly.

Then Kabuto came to him. Yasha shut his eyes and heard him begin the diagnosis. There was tutting, Yasha mentally snickering as the darkness resisted the diagnosis technique.

A smooth hand picked up his wrist, and held it almost unsurely. Heart rate, then. Odd, he must be fairly good at medical techniques to not feel comfortable with more traditional methods. No machines bar the IV, so it was probably unnecessary. Then Kabuto lifted up his eyelid, holding a torch. Yasha quickly batted it away, making him jump.

"Five more minutes," Yasha fake-groaned, turning away. Kabuto started chuckling heartily. Yasha gazed up at him with one eye, blearily. "Whaddya want?"

"I see you're awake," Kabuto scribbled busily.

_'All hands on sarcasm deck!'_ Yasha thought to himself, replying dryly, "Acute observation, Professor."

"How do you feel?"

"Like someone attacked me while massacring their clan. …how do you think?"

"No need to be rude," Kabuto scolded, jotting more notes. "I need _symptoms_."

Yasha ignored the request. "What time is it, and what day?"

Kabuto sighed. "It's 6AM, the day after we found you. The IV is a precaution, we expected you to be in a coma for weeks like Sasuke there, but couldn't diagnose if the same thing happened to you. Evidently that's not the case. Now, symptoms?"

"Gotcha. I'm fine, just a minor headache. No sensory abnormalities or hunger."

Scribble, scribble. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Yasha looked at his raised hand. "Two."

"No concussion then," Kabuto noted.

"I could've just told you that."

"People with concussion are disorientated."

"No shit. What's your next report, water is wet?"

Kabuto coughed. He was feeling a need to find a scalpel, for some reason. Pity Orochimaru was interested in this kid. If it wasn't for the ANBU, who Kabuto knew wasn't in Root, Kabuto would have free rein asking him all about his bloodline and getting samples for experiments.

He couldn't even get a blood sample under that ANBU's watchful eye, not without blowing his cover. Kabuto mentally cursed the ANBU again as he made small talk to the heavily sarcastic boy. _'Maybe I can slip a few questions in later?'_

"You're lucky to be alive. Only Sasuke survived the massacre." Kabuto watched keenly, but Yasha didn't react. "I'll report to the Hokage you're awake."

"Good, chatting with my favourite elder."

The sarcasm was obvious and Kabuto couldn't let his question go unasked. "You're not on good terms?"

Yasha fixed him with a sideways disbelieving look. "Obviously, we're best of pals, what with the whole knocking out most of his village in one go, he just _loves_ having me around."

The silver-haired medic coughed again. That detail had slipped his mind, but he was fairly certain the Hokage wouldn't hold it against Yasha. "That was you a month ago?"

The number of people visiting the hospital just after the mass collapse was quite high. A lot of civilians had been injured from collapsing in the middle of tasks; a couple even had burns from spilling hot drinks over themselves. Nothing the medic-nin couldn't handle, though.

"Yep," Yasha responded shortly. "Are we done here?"

Kabuto frowned at his rudeness. "I suppose so."

"Missing you already," Yasha dismissed him curtly.

The ANBU snorted as Kabuto strode out with his fists tightly compressed and arms shaking slightly. The medic made a mental note to return only with at least one scalpel. A few accidents would be rather unprofessional, but even professionals make a few mistakes now and then. A shaky grip after hearing about the Uchiha massacre wouldn't be too surprising.

Yasha silently woot'd at getting the ANBU to react. So there was life under the mask after all. "Oi, ANBU-san. Can you tell me what your orders are?"

The ANBU ignored him. Yasha frowned back. "Fine, be a douche."

He slumped back on his bed, collecting himself. He began to mould more chakra, watching with vague interest as the shadows started wavering in the room and the ANBU went completely rigid. "You can always just talk to me, it'll make things easier for yourself."

The ANBU stayed silent, but he didn't relax.

_'Man, he's either completely by the book type of guy, or just rude.'_ Yasha broke off the moulding once his available reserves were back to full. He shut his eyes, starting to think about the person in the nearby bed. _'Facts, facts. Sasuke, huh? He's meant to be a friend. Quite the reserved type, but fairly cheerful.'_

Until his brother to all appearances lost his rag and murdered everyone in his clan.

_'Damnit, Zack, you sent me back __**again**__ for no damn reason!' _Yasha scowled darkly._ 'Shisui still died, Itachi still murdered everyone, there's still no purpose. The only difference is I might've managed to save some kids. Still not sure if they survived… Itachi could have followed their scent or something… he certainly had no qualms with killing the one in my hands. Probably couldn't risk the Hokage observing him through the crystal and noticing he left them alive or something… although I guess I finished the kid off, but it's not like I could've saved him with a slit neck anyway.'_

At that point the door unlocked and some heavily bandaged man stepped in. His right arm was covered in bandages, as well as the right side of his head. Short brown hair, narrowed brown eye, carrying a cane. Black clothes, very simple, but air of importance and a _lot_ of darkness around him.

"What happened to you?" Yasha asked bluntly, drawing the man up short.

"I went to great pains for the village's sake," the aged man replied, beginning to walk forward until he was within hand's reach of Yasha. The brunette gazed at him calmly, watching the man size him up rapidly, pausing when he looked into the brunette's eyes. "So it's true, you give off a feeling of danger in any scenario… interesting."

Yasha frowned. Unlike Kabuto, this man didn't look familiar, and he couldn't recall any physical descriptions that matched. He wasn't sure how to manipulate him starting from scratch, and old ninja were generally _very_ good at not being manipulated; since the only slightly good ones died early. So he hummed in agreement and waited for him to speak again.

"Yasha, my name is Shimura Danzō."

Danzō didn't miss the reaction, even if it was suppressed; the Sharingan in his right eye behind the see-through-one-way bandages picked up the small facial twitches – recognition. He internally smirked; he had raised interest, and it was apparent Yasha knew of him.

"I've heard of you, an elder advisor to the Hokage? Same as Himura and Koharu?" Yasha defused his reaction with the commonplace knowledge.

_'Why would he suppress that reaction to me being an advisor? Is he trying to seem stoic?'_ Danzō mused to himself. His tone was carefully measured and calm. "Yes, we're the three members of the high council. I'm here to ensure I know your motives."

Yasha half-scoffed, ignoring the implied danger. "Please, Danzō-sama. Even _I_ find myself unpredictable. And I'm sure you know enough details about my ability to read and manipulate people."

Danzō nodded, to all appearances taking it in his stride. "I'm not interested in how your path twists, I'm concerned with where it ends."

Yasha reanalysed him; the wording was well picked, he was definitely clever. "So being knocked out while attempting to saving an Uchiha kid isn't enough proof of loyalty?"

Now it was the old man's turn to scoff. "Even an Uchiha child can provide benefit when deceased. It could simply be a cover for desiring the Sharingan."

Yasha frowned. "I would've just pulled out the eyes then. Less weight to carry. I'm not in the habit of sticking around psychopaths once I know they're on a rampage."

Danzō smirked slightly. "Oh? But before they do? I heard you had a few talks with Itachi."

Yasha frowned. "Yes, a couple… he seemed to be a pacifist. I wonder what could have brought this on… I doubt the Hokage would tell him to do it alone when he has a whole village of shinobi at his disposal. It sounds like someone going behind the Hokage's back…"

_'He's playing with fire.'_ Danzō's eye narrowed. This kid was shrewd, he instantly suspected Itachi was perfectly sane; of course, that was the case, but Itachi was always good at playing a role. He was a double agent for Konoha/Uchiha, after all. But why did he suspect Itachi was ordered outside of the Hokage?

That suggested much more knowledge than what Yasha was meant to have. Most children wouldn't even think it was possible for someone to sneak around such a powerful figure. "Uchiha Itachi was to all intents a dedicated Konoha shinobi. However, I did receive reports he was both highly disturbed and the main suspect in Uchiha Shisui's murder case."

Yasha smiled sweetly at him. "I see why you're just an advisor."

If Danzō had a red button, Yasha was pushing it. The bandaged man was still sour that the soft Hiruzen, his rival, had made it to Hokage while he sat in the sidelines. _'That will change soon…'_ The war hawk just managed to rein in his temper. "Beware of what you say, Yasha. You're attracting attention to yourself, and making enemies with it."

Yasha gazed at him coolly. He was in control now he remembered who Danzō was. He had knowledge of the man that Danzō didn't expect; he could play with him a little. "What would you say motivates you, Danzō?"

"Konoha," Danzō responded simply. "I would do anything for it."

Yasha's eyes drifted over the bandages. He didn't know what was under them, but the fact an eye was covered up… interesting. Uchiha massacre and eye covered up. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots. Danzō would probably be sprouting fifteen Sharingan if he had enough eye sockets for it and could keep it hidden. And Kabuto was most likely capable of implanting a single Sharingan, and he was in Root…

Saying that, Itachi had said he wasn't sure non-Uchiha could even use Mangekyō; excess Sharingan were pointless for a non-combatant unless you could use Mangekyō… so why was Danzō after Shisui's eyes if non-Uchiha nor non-Mangekyō-activated Uchiha couldn't use it? Maybe he knew something Itachi didn't…

The old man coughed lightly. "And what motivates you, Yasha-san?"

_'san? That's oddly polite, he's trying to suck up, slightly. Could also be a reference to how I was an outsider for a good while, or that I have good powers. A predecessor to offering Root training…'_

"I suppose…" Yasha's eyes drifted aimlessly to the window, "Excitement does. I enjoy the feeling of the wind in my face, being in the eye of a storm."

He liked that phrase, 'eye of a storm'. In that place, there was peace and tranquillity, just by pure coincidence, while around it everything was torn asunder. With enough experience, one could travel harmlessly in the middle of chaos, watching the buildings and scenery torn into shreds and admiring the destruction. Theoretically, an expert Futon user could create his own shield that way.

Danzō frowned slightly. Unclear motivations; being a spy would fulfil the desire to have 'excitement'. Anything to do with shinobi would. _'Cursed boy, making it harder to work you out.'_

But then, Danzō didn't want stupid soldiers. "I may be able to acquire special training for you. Assuming you can get that mouth under control."

Yasha froze. _'Seriously? He's doing that __**here**__? Straight off the bat from his first meeting? Geez, he doesn't waste time. I suppose he has to take any chances he can get.'_

The Third Hokage chose that moment to walk in. "Ah, Danzō-san. I see you are already at work."

His tone held a cold, albeit subtle rebuke. The subtleness was meant to be completely lost on Yasha, but he knew exactly why Sarutobi was suspicious. Root.

Danzō's tone was equally cold as he batted off the insult. His morals lead him to the decision. "His motives are still not clear, Hiruzen. I must do what I can with my _limited_ resources."

Again, the subtle emphasis would have been lost, if Yasha didn't have foreknowledge. Hiruzen publically did nothing to Danzō – it would have raised suspicion. Privately, Root was disbanded after Danzō went behind Hiruzen's back to order the destruction of the Uchiha; it proved they didn't see eye to eye and the cost was too great for the Hokage.

"I see." Hiruzen still sounded unimpressed but moved on to inspect Sasuke, eyeing him up much like Danzō had. He made his way to Yasha's bedside. "Dismissed, Danzō-san. And you, Goat."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," both responded, albeit the ANBU with far more willingness.

When the room was empty, the Third leant in close, his hands showing 'covert op' and his spoken tone was soft. "You failed?"

"I'm sorry. Itachi found me too early," Yasha worded it carefully, not saying he didn't save anyone. Listeners were probably just Root, so he wasn't worried about them, but an outright lie was treason… although implied mistruth was probably not much worse. It was just Yasha's style to hide the truth that way.

"Why did you expect the attempt three months ago?"

Yasha had never actually said that, but he schooled his frown, and acted like he had. _'That explains why, at two months before now, the Hokage had me dragged into T&amp;I – I'd gone past the apparent date. That makes so much __**sense**__. One day everything's fine, no watchers, then bam, T&amp;I.'_

He spoke, feeding regret into his tone. "It was a prediction based on very limited evidence, which I haven't been updated on. If I hadn't randomly used my mind-reading jutsu on my employer that night, I wouldn't even have known they were planning, let alone that it was yesterday. And I arranged to babysit then, so I just grabbed the kid and ran once I thought the coast was clear."

The Hokage hummed. It made sense; Yasha was smart, but he wouldn't know Itachi's reasoning, or who was attacking who, but just that there was conflict. He could have tried to run to the Hokage Tower on his own with news of the conflict, but judging from his pre-genin speed and stealth, it would've gotten there too late; plus the bloodbath would have carried on anyway, just with more non-Uchiha involved. And for all he knew, the village and the Uchiha were attacking each other.

He was no sensor, and the Uchiha child he had been babysitting was one who lived fairly far from the village centre. He had calculated the risks, waited, and ran for it; and just was too late.

"I'm sorry, Yasha-san. I never wanted this to happen."

"Yeah," Yasha brushed the apology off dismissively. "I half-expected it, I'm a realist. Just don't give me that therapy crap. If I have a Yamanaka around me I'll lose my rag."

The Third was briefly shocked. He wasn't sure _he_ _himself_ was recovered from yesterday. "But…"

"I've killed two people before, Hokage-sama," Yasha interrupted, making it crystal clear; he _couldn't_ waste time on a therapist while fending off Naruto's suspicions _and_ caring for the Uchiha kids. "I've watched while horrible things happen, _much_ more horrible than just dying from blood loss. It's too late for therapy now."

The old man remained uneasy, so he continued, "After the stint in T&amp;I I don't want them around." He smirked and went back to apparent sarcasm to lighten the conversation. "Plus, I like being morally questionable. It'd piss me off to be cooped in a psychiatrist's office and I'd just take it out on whatever poor soul is assigned to help me."

The Third sighed. He shouldn't let Yasha dictate that, but Inoichi did say he had a coping mechanism – one that if anything, was _over_-protective. And Yasha _had_ seen murder before, and dealt it himself.

And the brunette was more than capable of giving Yamanaka a run for their money with psychoanalysis; he could easily analyse himself. It went against a lot of Hiruzen's morals, but Hiruzen was already sure Yasha was very capable of forcing him to go along with it through some twisted means – Naruto, S-Rank secrets, etc. He still had a lot of cards he could play. The Kage was just coming to terms with the fact this boy could hold the Uchiha massacre over his head for the entirety of his time in Konoha, and with proof against genjutsu and mind seals, plus Naruto's friendship, there was no way to squirm out of his hold. And, damn it all, he knew Yasha loved Naruto genuinely under all that web of manipulation tactics. "Fine, as you wish… I'll discuss it with some more members, though. It does make me uncomfortable."

"You're too soft, Hokage-sama," Yasha half-rebuked/half-approved. "But, all us ninja need to come to terms with murder and death at some point."

The Third smiled genially. Even this brat was telling him that he was soft now, even if his smile was disarming his statement.

"I guess I'm just a regular Academy student now, ne?" Yasha sighed.

The Hokage scoffed at him. "One that knocked out most of the village and transformed into the Kyuubi. No one's paying any attention to you _at all_."

"Is that _sarcasm?!_ From the _Hokage?!_" Yasha gazed at him incredulously, then his gaze shifted rapidly to the window and he pointed. "Ooh look, a flying pig."

The two chuckled for a bit, deflating the tense mood.

"Seriously though… How's Sasuke?" Yasha asked.

The mood instantly went serious again and the village leader's face hardened. "He's in a coma, some sort of genjutsu-induced mental trauma. It could be weeks before he wakes up."

"Damn." Yasha was genuinely sorry for the kid; weeks of sleeping was horrible, trauma aside. The amount of lifetime that was lost, so inefficiently…

He defaulted back to humour. "At least you have a spare brunette."

"I'm sure Shikamaru is just as useful as you." The Third poked fun at him.

Yasha deflected the jibe. "Hey, at least _I'm_ motivated. You just don't know what by."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow. "I suppose that's _something_."

They both turned to gaze at the coma-ridden Uchiha. "I can try to help Sasuke," Yasha suggested.

"How?" the Hokage asked curiously.

"I can put him under a genjutsu of my own. They'll distort whatever genjutsu he's in."

The Hokage shook his head. "No, you misunderstood me. The coma isn't _part_ of the genjutsu, or we'd just release it. He's not under a genjutsu now, just _recovering_ from a severe one."

"Ah." Yasha felt less useful until another idea hit him. "But if I _release_ the genjutsu after applying it, it'll restore his chakra flow to normal on a minute level. Thus discarding any coma-induced flow he's in."

The Hokage sighed. "You can try, I suppose, if you're _sure_ it's not going to be dangerous."

"Yosh!" Yasha swivelled his legs off the bed, and scowled as a bolt of pain shot up from his neck, adding fuel to his headache. _'Damn you, Itachi.'_

"You okay?" The Hokage put a hand under the scowling boy's arm to help him off the bed. "I know the medics couldn't diagnose or heal you due to your, um…"

"I'm good." Yasha broke him off, then hesitated. "Cheers. Just a headache and painful neck. Bastard knocked me out."

Hiruzen's expression darkened, but he wordlessly helped the boy off his bed. Danzō had been told in no uncertain terms his actions to instruct Itachi behind the Hokage's back was nothing short of insubordination.

All the power Hiruzen could strip from him without drawing public attention was stripped. His Root had been disbanded; the Hokage had originally meant for Danzō's desire for power to be satiated by that, but he had overstepped his bounds. As it was, ANBU was out of the public eye.

If Itachi hadn't been on a covert op, and for a multitude of political reasons, this would be sufficient evidence to throw Danzō into jail. It was completely the wrong thing to do. What was worse was Danzō clearly felt no guilt for having done it.

He helped Yasha out of bed, watching him as Yasha made his way to a pale Sasuke and carefully placed his hand on the other boy's forehead. This was the new generation, one unsuited to war.

In a way, it was a good thing; they were innocent, had strong morals; and fought for protection, not revenge. In another way, it was bad; they knew nothing of the horrors of war and hadn't the experience to avoid it.

Yasha shut his eyes, casting his genjutsu and the other boy flinched. Yasha leant over and injected some chakra to cancel it, drawing another flinch, but no more reactions.

"Well then." Yasha sighed. "He's not waking up."

"I didn't think it would work," the Third mused.

What he didn't expect was for Yasha to hop onto the bed while making more hand seals. He went to grab him, calling, "Hey, Yasha-!"

The boy just went limp, collapsing over Sasuke. Hiruzen grabbed him, but soon realised his consciousness was no longer in there as the boy flopped in his arms.

* * *

The brunette found himself standing in pitch black. He could feel a floor, but there wasn't one… there was just no momentum of falling, either. Splotchy dark red patches dotted the blackness around him.

"Oi, Sasuke. This is Yasha, your classmate. You need to wake up," Yasha said into the pitch darkness.

There was no response. Yasha repeated himself, louder, and the red splotches grew across the black a bit further, so he hastily disconnected. The Death Release user hoped he hadn't just induced brain failure. With a strong mental connection, he was used to a nice calm single-coloured background, one that never changed, where the person's thoughts echoed nicely and he was very vaguely aware of their body's movement and what they saw.

That was most people's mindscape. He had no idea what the growing splotches were… something was repairing? Or breaking? He wasn't going to risk his consciousness breaking with it.

"Any luck?" the Hokage asked tiredly.

Yasha felt a flash of fear. He might've just broken something mentally with Sasuke. "No, not really. I did something, but I'm not sure what."

Hiruzen gazed at the multiple machines monitoring Yasha. "You spent a good few minutes in there. The brainwave activity changed a while ago. I've summoned the doctors."

As if on cue, two doctors ran through the door, with Kabuto tailing them looking almost nervous.

Yasha gave the spy silent kudos for the clueless medic-in-training appearance even as he hurriedly got off the bed. He realised he was in a hospital gown when he fell unceremoniously and his butt hit the floor with a skin-smacking sound.

"Where are my clothes, sensei?" he requested, but all three ignored him. Tutting, he spun and checked the bedside drawers. _'Bingo. Hmm… no blood, but they are dirty. I guess the swarms I released dealt with the kid's blood on my clothes.'_

He felt a bit queasy thinking about the kid's gargling attempts for breath as his throat spurted blood around his fingers. He shoved the thoughts out of his mind – he'd deal with them later. _'My subconscious wants to mull the image over for a while before it becomes a memory I won't physically react to…'_

That was how he handled things that needed thought – he let them mull around in the background of his head until they vanished into his memories. After that, he didn't tend to react when he was reminded of it.

Weird, but he never attempted to understand his subconscious.

He dressed rapidly behind the protection of the bed's operating curtain. He doubted anyone would have looked, but it was the principle of a night op.

The Hokage regarded him as he emerged, plain dark grey short-sleeve t-shirt with black trousers. It was strangely ideal for a night op, but Yasha wore dark clothes to seemingly all occasions.

Yasha frowned to himself, his arms feeling a bit cold in the disinfected air. _'Didn't I have a jacket? I must've abandoned it at the kids' place. Running plus jacket equals lots of sweat. I vaguely remember doing that…'_

"Yasha…" The Hokage took him aside and spoke to him in hushed tones. "Make sure the events of that night, even babysitting – every word is considered S-Rank. No talking of it to anyone or I will be forced to have you silenced." The Hokage's tone was dead serious. "As far as anyone knows, you were never there. Danzō included."

Yasha blinked, somewhat taken aback by the sudden gravity. "You're completely charming, you know. Message received, _sir_."

The Hokage's tone reverted to playful normalcy. "Well, come now, Yasha-kun. You have a visitor."

Yasha followed the old leader outside into the corridor and towards the double doors at the end of it. "Oh no…" he groaned, having worked out who it was after about two seconds. "Did he get _any_ sleep?"

Hiruzen rolled his eyes. "Your status was described as stable many times to him, and some nurses even threatened him, but he refused to move until he saw you."

_'Well, I guess that means no,'_ Yasha thought dryly.

Sure enough, the brunette was soon propelled backwards from a blond's running tackle.

* * *

"Naruto, I've been hospitalised twice now. You _still_ haven't gotten used to it yet?"

"Yasha-kuuuuun!" Naruto whined loudly, still holding onto his arm. "Stop brushing it off! I care about you!"

Yasha suppressed his embarrassment. Hell no was he going to blush at people's affections. That was a Hinata thing. He pulled out his sarcasm defences again. "Oho? Enough to do the housecleaning on your own for the rest of the year?"

The blond paled. Yasha smirked at him. "Let's go home and have some tea."

"Okay!" Naruto happily accepted the change of subject, colour returning. He didn't want to go _near_ extra housecleaning.

Yasha could feel a stabbing pain up into his head, with every step. Itachi's knockout method left much to be desired. He had a bad headache by the time the two boys were home.

Naruto opened the front door and froze. Yasha rolled his eyes at the contents of each room thrown messily everywhere. "I'm not cleaning that shit up."

In front of Naruto's perturbed gaze, his friend proceeded to completely disregard the mess, strolling into the kitchen, past the tipped-over table. The blond trailed behind him and watched as the brunette picked up the kettle stand, plugged it in, found the kettle thrown onto the floor and filled it up with water. Yasha kept a blank face, robotically collecting the teabags, spoon, cups and dumping it on the worktop, until he had all the equipment he needed. Then he picked up the chair and sat on it with a sigh as the kettle began to heat up.

He fixed his housemate with an unimpressed look. "You know, Naruto, you need to control your rages."

The blond snapped out of his numb stupor and defended indignantly. "I don't rage, dattebayo! I mean, um… this wasn't me!"

Yasha didn't reply, listening to the kettle gradually come to the boil. He knew that much. There would only be damage in the hallway if Naruto had been enraged, as he ploughed his way to the hospital, past whoever informed him Yasha was in hospital.

Once the brunette had some milk tea in his hands, he smiled at his housemate, who had picked up the other chairs only to find one of their legs was broken off. Instead he took to leaning against the wall, legs crossed over like he had seen Yasha do.

"You look rather cool like that," Yasha informed him.

The blond smiled then his forehead twitched in thought. "Ano, what _is_ cool, anyway?" he asked confusedly.

"Hmm…" Yasha sipped the tea thoughtfully. It was a subject of some thought for him at one point. "It's being independent, self-assured, and determined."

Naruto looked thoughtful. "Huh… but I do that anyway!"

Yasha frowned. Yeah, he did… yelling about how he was going to be Hokage in the midst of all the villagers, despite everything. "Come to think of it, you do. So, I guess you must be cool."

Naruto grinned again at the recognition, then frowned. "But no one thinks I'm cool at the Academy, dattebayo."

Yasha smirked. "And that's the biggest mistake, Naruto-kun. Being cool means being independent… including about what other people think of you." Yasha waved his finger around dramatically. "If you _believe_ you're cool, and you're independent and determined, you'll eventually just _become_ cool. In the eyes of your peers."

"So people think you're cool because _you_ think you are?" Naruto repeated incredulously.

Yasha shrugged. "I guess. I can manipulate people that way. I can even make Chouji be cool."

"Chouji _is_ cool, though." Naruto protested. "He's nice, dattebayo."

"Aye." Yasha nodded. "But nice isn't the same as cool. Just because _you_ think he's cool, not necessarily most of the class do, and it's majority that counts. He probably gets insulted a lot because he's fat." Naruto flushed, knowing it was true. Yasha waved his hand placatingly. "But no, he's not cool. It's not because he's fat; it's because he _cares_ when he's called fat, as an insult. If he brushed it off, laughed about it, made fun of himself, any one of those, he'd be much more cool. Because, that's being self-assured – knowing what you are, not letting any insults get to you…"

"I see…" Naruto said slowly.

"You have learned well, Grasshopper." Yasha patted the air in Naruto's direction as if patting his head. Then a thought occurred to him. "Actually, that's probably where you fail too, you know. No one thinks you're cool because whenever they say they want to be Hokage, or they call you something nasty, or laugh at you – you get upset."

Naruto scowled at him. "How can I not be upset? It hurts!" He felt around his heart area. "Right here, dattebayo. It hurts."

His housemate blinked. Twice. Then he wordlessly got up, strode to the blond and gave him a hug.

* * *

**AN:** Awww. That's so cute and sad. How could you _not_ cuddles?

Anyone who would not cuddle Naruto in that scenario is a heartless wench… or paralysed from the neck down.

Anyway, back to the story. The knockout tags seemed overpowered, since the abuse would be everywhere, but they were store-bought, not home-made. For all Yasha knew, they might've killed the Uchiha he used them on, or caused brain damage, but it was either that or risk them wandering off/screaming the place down while he was out collecting the other kids.

Obito may now also know about Yasha.

And Yūrei, a mysterious figure who delayed the first Uchiha coup (the canon-timed one, which happened when Sasuke was 8 – he delayed it until he was nearly at graduation), has gotten himself a job of watching the Jinchūriki and the last Uchiha.  
Where'd he get the Sharingan from, was he born with it? Did he steal them? Will he ever actually play a key part or hide in the shadows? Where do his loyalties lie?

Who knows? I'll let you in on a secret: I'm not quite sure myself.

Also, the Youtube video ID 7SePx4QzzmY is damn _awesome_ music. Listen to the end, you won't regret it.

PS: Will be updating later, maybe the 14th; can't seem to get the flow for the part of the story next up (although I do have the flow for random later parts… go figure).


	24. Forgetting to remember

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 24: Forgetting to remember_**

* * *

**AN:** Well howdy folks. Sorry about the longer wait on this one. My access portal into this story kept screwing up, chucking me several chapters ahead. Tapping into alternative mental universes built off mental intent of creativity rather than passive observation is not that easy, but I know C++, and that helps.

I call it the MRAT machine. The person who said it was like I was just narrating what I saw was spot on.

Runnin' low on the nuclear divaricator, though, I'll have to visit Utah nuclear test sites and find more uranium. They barely bury the radioactive metal shards, you know.

Anyway, we left the story with Danzō inviting Yasha into Root training, Yasha did fancy mind poop on Sasuke trying to fix him but broke/fixed/changed something, and the Hokage warning Yasha "no talky of massacre or you be dead-face" (in professional Kage-speak, ofc). Then Naruto tackled Yasha and we understood what it means to be cool.  
We _understood_.

And now Yasha's going to visit his knocked-out-by-tag kids. He saved seven in total, and they've been KO'd for most of the night, much like Yasha himself, who was knocked out by Itachi-badassness. Rather explicit, due to Yasha being in pain for lots of the chapter.

* * *

Yasha sighed. _'Damn, but Itachi is a bitch. This fucking headache… just one day; just feed the kids just once today, and I can rest for a while.'_

He made his way to the kids' place in an unhurried walk, only pausing to get a newspaper full of 'Uchiha be dead-ified'. He would've wanted to run, but each step was jarring and shot pain from the top of his spine up into his head. He hoped Itachi hadn't damaged his spinal cord. And he didn't want to attract attention (although speedy people weren't _too_ uncommon for a ninja village).

Naruto had been distracted with a couple of books to read before his housemate got back, with promises of ramen rewards. He had nodded off despite that.

But at one point, just in case, Yasha ducked into an alley and hid around the side of a dumpster, observing the street. No one passed by looking like they were looking for him, and a certain blond maelstrom was certainly nowhere to be seen. _'Good.'_

There could always be ANBU, from Danzō or the Third, but he had no way to detect them anyway, and he needed to be with the kids. He could hardly leave them possibly starving to death, and forcibly-induced sleep was hardly healthy.

He arrived, unlocked and stepped inside, immediately confronted with a rather nasty smell. Or rather, several smells. The hair he had pinned in the door was still there, so that was something, but he noted to check the dirt around the window panes for disturbances.

He strode into the living room, which had several Uchiha kids he'd applied knockout tags to. One few-week-old girl, one five-month-old boy, two girls and two boys between 1-3 years old. And one eight-year-old boy, a mistake, who was currently running up to him looking expectant.

His mistake from yesterday night; it went a bit like this…

Yasha had been just about to run with the kid when he heard his someone call out. "Hey, where are you taking my otōto, Yasha-san?" Keito had asked, rubbing his eyes blearily, unaware he was throwing a wrench firmly in Yasha's rescue plans. Yasha had clean forgotten one of the kids had an older brother. Although 8 years wasn't exactly _old_… but he had been forced to cover up, bringing the preadolescent boy with him as some sort of hiding game.

And the perky eight-year-old was definitely old enough to remember his heritage, and the stupid pride – a problem Yasha really needed to address. He was a loose cannon at best, but Yasha didn't know how to clone himself and couldn't keep an eye on him completely.

"Yasha-san! Where have you been? Is it time to go home?" Keito asked excitedly.

Yasha couldn't help sighing, grabbing the Uchiha and dragging him to the couch. "Keito, I'm going to need you to listen closely. What I'm going to say is important."

Keito's excited face fell to solemnity, the eight-year-old mind working something out. "Something's wrong, huh?"

Yasha nodded, his hand pinching the skin of his glabella and flattening it against the underlying bone, the mild pain helping him focus during the headache. "A very powerful man called Uchiha Itachi has killed your entire clan. The children in this room are the only Uchiha left alive."

Keito froze up in horror, jaw dropping and eyes flitting over his babysitter's dead serious expression. He fumbled for words for a good while, the colour draining from his face.

Yasha spoke urgently. "Don't scream. Stay quiet. If people find you're here, Itachi will kill us as well."

Keito opened his mouth, and Yasha stuffed a ratty cushion in his face. "Scream into that. Muffle it." The eight-year-old let rip into the cushion, sobs starting to wrack his body. Yasha stared on, brushing his empathy aside. This was no time to get sympathetic.

Keito needed the score straight. He must not have any questions, or that would lead to investigating… which would lead to a breakdown in public, which would lead to discovery…

"My… my parents? My Kaa-san?! What happened to them?!" Keito almost yelled.

Yasha hurriedly hushed him. "Kami, Keito! Quiet!"

"They're not dead, are they? Tou-san's strong too! He'll keep Kaa-san safe!" Keito blurted, freezing as Yasha pulled out a kunai and swiftly held it to his throat.

Yasha hissed the words, unimpressed. "Keito, _shut the __**fuck**__ up_ or I will just kill you to protect these other kids. If Itachi finds out one more person is alive, he will come right in here and kill them all off. I am nowhere near strong enough to protect you from him, and you're definitely not either. So shut the _fuck _up and get some control over yourself. _Understood?"_

It was perhaps a little brutal to threaten a child, but Yasha was in no mood to screw around. His head was pounding and he really wanted to just go to bed and sleep it off.

Keito nodded, his sobbing degrading to quiet heaves.

Yasha stuck the kunai into the floor with a **_thunk_** to relieve his aggression. "I was late because he knocked me out. I didn't even see him move." He was genuinely bitter about his weakness, and Keito could hear it. "I couldn't save your parents; I wouldn't even be able to save myself. If he thought I was an Uchiha, I'd be dead too."

"So now I've saved you lot," Yasha gestured at the room of kids, "I now have to hide you from being found out until he's dead. But I live with someone else, someone who can't keep a secret like you guys being… well, alive. So I can't stay here all day. If I'm noticed coming here, you guys will die, too."

Keito nodded shakily, not able to pick out the holes in the logic at his age.

"Great. Now, I need this house to be silent. Completely quiet. Having babies around is going to make it noisy. Keito, while I'm not here, you have to watch these babies. By yourself." Yasha watched him carefully.

Keito gaped. "I'm only eight!"

"Tough shit, kid," Yasha replied with no sympathy at all. "I'm only twelve. There's six babies and two of us. Listen carefully. What do you know about ninjutsu and genjutsu?"

"Oh, uh… I can do a Henge," Keito declared with a tentative smile.

"Good. That is good." Yasha smiled back thoughtfully. _'He can buy supplies or come see me in a pinch, then. Excellent.'_

"Genjutsu? What about that?"

"It's hallu-hallucinations?" the boy managed to say, face wrinkling with effort.

"Quite right," Yasha replied approvingly. "Genjutsu is a way to control someone's mind. Now, these kids, and you as well, have a genetic mental condition, inherited through the Uchiha. Let me explain it to you; it's called the Curse of Hatred…"

When Yasha was done explaining the cycle of hatred and the madness that followed, Keito was still, his eyes closed in thought, but no indication as to whether he thought it was true, false, or if it was going over his head completely.

"There are many dangers that mean you have to do what I say. That's the main one. You can't avenge your family, not any of the Uchiha. And you can't tell any of the kids your legacy."

"Legacy?" Keito repeated, not sure what he meant.

"Legacy… you know, your ancestors, the fact you're an Uchiha. I'll let you all keep your first name… no, actually, it's probably best not to…" Yasha corrected with a sigh, thinking hard. "But the plan is this: I'll take care of you brats for about three months, in this house, maybe a bit longer, then I'll reintroduce you all to orphanages at different intervals. That way, no one looking for Uchiha will find you, and if I don't spend too long here, no one who's watching me will find you either."

"But we can't just be left here. I can't take care of six kids!" the eight-year-old pointed out in a shocked tone.

Yasha smirked at him. "I don't want to see your ugly face that often. It'd be plain suspicious if was around too much, I'd let people find you and that would mean you die."

"I don't get it." Keito folded his arms with his lip jutted out, stiffly wiping the remainder of his tears away as he rethought over all what Yasha had said. "I… I don't think my parents are dead. I think you're lying."

_'About time for denial to kick in,' _Yasha thought, more puzzled by the delay before he was questioned than angry at being called a liar._ 'I was expecting that sooner. I guess my threat probably threw that off track.'_

He rummaged on the desk beside him. "I don't lie. Here." Yasha tossed the newspaper at him. "Can you read?"

"Yeah!" Keito snapped indignantly, unfolding the newspaper. His confidence faded to horror as he read the headline. And then the article. "Kami-sama…" he whispered, the tears starting again. "You weren't lying…"

"I don't lie," Yasha repeated flatly, as if it was obvious. He _did_ lie, but he preferred giving half-truths and letting the person build up the lie by their own assumptions. Trust was a good part of manipulation; get people to think you're speaking truth and you've won half the battle. People were naturally more inclined to believe what they came up with on their own.

Keito frowned at the article. "Who's Sasuke? Is it…?"

Yasha nodded. "Yes, he's Itachi's younger brother. Itachi left him alive so he could test his strength with him later. Sasuke will avenge the Uchiha."

"Sasuke will…?" Keito repeated distantly, sounding confused.

The older brunette explained it simply, dumbing it down to what he thought was eight-year-old logic. "He's Itachi's younger brother, so he's the clan head. The current clan head is dead, and Itachi killed most of the clan, so he's not a good choice for leader. And since Sasuke is the heir, _and_ Itachi's brother, it's _his_ job to avenge. Not yours."

Keito nodded slowly, realisation creeping over his face. It made sense… and he didn't really want to fight someone like Itachi. Itachi was the biggest prodigy the Uchiha had seen, and his accomplishments was the talk of the whole clan. Keito was very familiar with the would-be clan head. "So Itachi killed everyone but Sasuke?"

"That's what everyone thinks." Yasha flopped down onto the couch, making a note not to do that when a small puff of dust billowed in front of him. "And I don't want to announce to the world I saved you guys. What do you think would happen?"

Keito scowled. "Sasuke will boss me around."

Yasha blinked, and then started snickering. Keito looked perturbed for a while but smiled weakly. After a few seconds, the older brunette coughed and cleared his throat, shoving away the humour at the unexpected answer. This was serious. "Maybe, but that's not the point. People will ask me: why did I save you kids?"

Keito nodded, and then looked expectantly at him, clearly asking the same question.

Yasha rolled his eyes, laying it out for him. "Because kids don't remember stupid things like Uchiha pride and Curse of Hatred. They won't get revenge."

"You want us… to forget we are Uchiha?" Keito stated slowly and deliberately, disbelief hanging off his tone. His parents had always talked about the Uchiha so proudly…

"Yes," Yasha said simply. "If you lot act like you're Uchiha, several things will go wrong."

He held his hand out to illustrate the point, checking off each finger. "First, Sasuke will spend so much time helping you guys grow up, he won't be strong enough to fight Itachi."

_'Unlikely, since Itachi probably won't be able to kill him regardless of his level of strength due to his bond with Sasuke, but this is an eight-year-old…'_

"Second, Itachi will find out, no matter how few people you tell. He can just use his Sharingan, put whoever knows in genjutsu, and make them say out loud where you are."

_'Again, somewhat unlikely; that would require Itachi to know that someone knew of the new Uchiha and hypnotise that particular person.'_

"Third, you'll get all sorts of expectations put on you. They'll want you to reproduce, make babies, do paperwork, and recreate the clan again." Yasha held up his hand as Keito opened his mouth, cutting him off. "And that's _fine_… but you can do that once Itachi is dead. There's no rush."

Keito was actually a bit confused about the whole baby-making thing, so he was going to ask about that. Yasha merely thought using something only adults knew about in the reasons wasn't a bad idea, it gave it the feeling of being considered by an adult… of course, that was assuming Keito didn't get too curious and ask an adult – and accidentally reveal during the awkward explanation that his children would have Sharingan or something.

"Fourth, you lot will be hunted down, tortured or maybe killed by foreign ninjas who want to get some Sharingan. The fact there's so few would lead to people trying to wipe you out entirely."

Keito nodded soberly. He had heard several times of where people had gotten Sharingan illegally.

_'Kami, I hope he pays attention,'_ Yasha thought wearily. _'I can't think too well. Head's pounding too hard, and worrying isn't helping it. If he starts looking like he's planning something I'm not going to see it.'_

Yasha clapped lightly for extra attention. "Now, there is only _one person_ who can spoil these plans and make all that mess happen, getting all you kids killed. And who is that?"

Keito looked confused. "…You?"

"No, _you_, brat." Yasha jabbed him with his finger and the boy squirmed out of range, looking indignant again. "_You're_ the weak link. If you start getting stupid ideas, start telling people you're an Uchiha, start saying you're taking care of kids… you'll ruin everything. And I'll be forced to kill you."

"You wouldn't…" Keito smirked with mostly faked confidence. "I'm one of the Uchiha you saved. You can't just…"

Yasha smiled back, twisting the grin into menacing. "And _absolutely no one other than me knows that you're still alive_." He stressed every word, which was complete truth, as he pulled out the kunai again, twirling it around his finger as the boy started to look a bit more fearful. "I have barely _any_ reservation with killing you. To be honest, I was planning to do it when you got in the way. And your younger brother will have to grow up without _any_ sort of family. How does _that_ sound?"

Keito looked very shaken as the older boy caught the kunai in his hand again and looked ready to use it, staring down at him clinically.

Yasha continued, trying to be as aggressive yet reasonable as he could. "Yes, I'm asking you to forget. Until Itachi is dead. Then you can submit to Sasuke's bossing you around if you _really_ want to."

He waited for a spark of recognition to cross Keito's face before he continued, "Or you can start your own clan, call it The Ultimate Ninja or Super Uchiha or something. I don't care, honestly. But you are _not_ going to be responsible for causing these other six kids to die early. If I _think_ you'll cause that, just for a _second_, I won't hesitate to get rid of you."

He went back to threatening easily, watching the other boy cower away with some glee. "I will shove this kunai into your head and bury your corpse under the floorboards. _And no one will notice._"

"Fine. Fine. I get it," Keito said hastily, eyes fixed on the kunai and hands raised defensively. "I won't tell anyone."

"Good. We understand each other?"

"I suppose," Keito conceded sullenly, his gaze turning back to the kids as the older boy tucked the kunai away. _'He's really looking out for these babies.'_

Suddenly he remembered the question he was going to ask earlier. "What's wrong with these guys anyway? They've been sleeping all night and they haven't woken up yet."

Yasha scratched his head sheepishly. "That would be… low-powered knockout tags. They'll wake up soon once the effects wear off. I have three spare, but I don't want to use them. You're not even meant to use them on under-tens."

"So that's why I fell asleep on the floor…" Keito breathed. The second Yasha had tapped him yesterday, he felt so tired he collapsed.

Yasha nodded curtly. "Yeah. They might die if they're not fed soon. Worst case scenario, they become a vegetable from chakra overload damage. That baby, particularly." He pointed at the few-week-old baby. "Even though I ordered particularly low-powered ones specially, it's still a risk."

Keito gave a slow nod, eyes riveted to the youngest baby, and then crossing to his brother. "And what happens when they wake up?"

"They're probably going to cry. Now, under no circumstances are they allowed to make noise. Too much and the neighbours come around; the gig is up. Too much and the neighbours complain to the Hokage or someone like that; the gig is up. Anyone visits here and gets inside, there will be a problem."

Keito looked perturbed. "You can't expect babies to be quiet…"

"No." Yasha channelled some chakra into the floor, and immediately blue lines lit up in a simple crossed chakra wire, flowing to the four walls, then up to paper seals. The seals were sitting, all four in the centre of the walls, and one on the ceiling above the one on the floor, where Yasha was standing. The kanji for 'Silence' was written in the middle of all of them.

"I bought sound muffling tags," Yasha explained to the awed kid. "But they're not perfect. They have to be manually activated, by pushing chakra into them. You, Keito-san, are going to need a lot of chakra, and a lot of patience to make sure you don't upset the kids enough to have to use the seals in the first place."

Keito nodded dutifully. Yasha was scary, but he seemed to have a plan.

"They're all wired up to the middle of this room; you step on this seal, and push chakra into it, with your hand or foot, or whatever. The more chakra you push in, the quieter the room will get." Yasha demonstrated, and the younger brunette absorbed the information.

"And if that doesn't work, I have these." Yasha held up a set of black dog collars.

"What are those?" Keito wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"They're retraining collars, I got them from Konoha's dog clan. They're meant to be used for dogs. If the dogs keep disobeying, and there are little alternatives, they're placed in solitary confinement. And these collars are put on them. There's a small circuit board inside, with a microphone. Every time there's too much noise, whoever's wearing it gets electrocuted. It stops the dogs from calling to others or their owners."

Keito paled with each sentence. "You're going to use that on these _kids?"_

Yasha shrugged. "_Ideally_, no. It's a last resort. And if we do use it, it won't activate too many times – the kids will get the idea very quickly."

"That's… brutal." Keito's expression was still horrified.

"That's why they're not wearing them now," Yasha said, tone becoming snappy. "And you can't come up with anything better."

He fixed a hard glare onto Keito who numbly gazed downwards. "It's simple: you treat them nicely, make sure they have their basic needs met. If they start crying, you can use the dummies or pacifiers or whatever they're called. Or you use the room's muffling seal. If you don't have the chakra, you tie that on them."

Keito looked at him, still open-mouthed with disbelief. "You're going to _electrocute babies?_"

"Yes." Yasha gave him the clear answer he obviously wanted. "It's either that, or I knock them out… or kill them by revealing them publicly, where Itachi can see."

"Right…" Keito didn't look convinced it was the right thing, but Yasha didn't really care about his morals. Keito was an outlier; he wasn't even meant to be alive. The amount of his opinion that mattered was only one decision: either he would cause the brats to be found, or he wouldn't. If he would, he would have to die.

The Death Release user leaned forward, raising his hands. "Now, Keito. Some basic rules. First, if they are crying loud enough to be heard outside this room, it's too loud. Gag them, rock them, hug them, use the muffling seal, or use the collars. Whatever works.

"Second rule; if someone turns up to the house, you do not answer the door, ever. There is no one who has a legitimate reason to be here, and this is a bad neighbourhood. Do not open the door. Ever. Once I'm confident you can defend and disguise yourself, I'll let you know. Feel free to work on your Henge until then.

"Third rule, do not, _ever_, even _suggest_ you or any of these kids are Uchiha," Yasha stressed. "If any of your identities are revealed, say your brother's discovered, you have to keep silent about the others. Give no information, _ever_, no matter what they threaten or bribe you with. No matter what they tell you about me, or anyone else. You don't live here, you don't know these kids. Got it?"

"I get it," Keito said placatingly, eyes fixed on the kunai.

"Right. Once I found out there's a new Uchiha around, I will investigate who blurted it out. These kids aren't old enough to know, not old enough to remember that they're Uchiha, and you're not meant to tell them. So if they do know, that just leaves you, or some very clever people working it out. So I'll ask you outright."

It was possible they would remember their roots, but only very distantly and unsurely. If they couldn't be convinced it was a childhood dream of some sort, and all else failed… Yasha would simply kill them. But 'all else' was probably rather broad in options; fuuinjutsu was a wide field, and so was genjutsu, and his insects could interact with the brain, he might have more tricks later.

It was part of the reason the Death Release user didn't want to get too close to them. Keito, in a way, rescued him from that. The four kids that were currently 2-3 years old would retain memories of him, but so few they wouldn't interact with him later, particularly if he didn't go along with their memories, and pretended they had him mistaken for someone else.

Although he planned to visit the orphanages anyway, to check up – i.e. make sure Danzō hadn't got his claws on them.

Keito opened his mouth to point out something, but shut it shortly. Yasha guessed what he was going to say. "No, you can't just lie about whether you told someone. I can read minds with my ability. Memories too."

It was a flat lie; he couldn't read memories at all. But he needed Keito to think there was no possibility of lying to him. Making someone fearful of you, and then flatter them; i.e. make them think you need them and respect their ability to fill a role, but also that they're not irreplaceable. It was the best way to manipulate most people: two different methods at once. For an Uchiha, there was a lot of pride to bend to your will.

It was possible for him to read memories indirectly, though. For example, he just had to ask 'Where were you on Monday?' while reading their thoughts – whatever was thought in response was most likely about where they were on Monday, or how they could phrase their response in a way that hid the real truth – the real truth that they would have to think about and Yasha would then pick up on.

Although, once people worked out the trick, and with some practice they could hide it, but there was little chance Keito could now. But Yasha had no desire to test it, lest Keito worked the mechanics out from the experience. He was an Uchiha, after all, the same clan as Itachi.

"So, do you understand?"

"Hai, Yasha-sama."

Yasha blinked in surprise, but Keito didn't look sarcastic. And then the kid _bowed_. "Arrigato, for saving me."

_'An Uchiha bowing to a no-clan civilian? Keito must have __**really**__ been impressed.'_ Yasha didn't voice that, though. Humility was also a trust-earning factor. "I don't need thanks, I need action. Now, I'm not going to put the collars on these kids. And the one you can't put it on, is this brat."

Yasha pointed at the youngest baby, a tiny girl called Etsuko. "She's only three weeks old, or so. If she gets knocked out by a tag, it could seriously affect her. The rest are fine. But remember, last resort."

"Hai," Keito confirmed, a small smile appearing as he decided Yasha wasn't as heartless as he thought.

Yasha sighed, looking at the window again. Better now than when the little ones were awake. "And I think you deserve to see the Uchiha compound. If you can hold a Henge under pressure, I'll let you see it now. Otherwise, you'll have to stay here until you can."

Keito nodded firmly, eyes widened slightly at seeing the truth himself, and put his hands together. "Henge!"

With releases of chakra smoke – that Yasha had managed to remove from his own Henge through a _lot_ of jutsu practice – Keito's hair changed to light brown, eyes a dark brown. He was a few inches taller, no surprise there, ego and all. Yasha strolled around him, giving him a once-over. "Fine. Let's go. When we get back, I'll wake the kids up for breakfast."

The mistake nodded shortly. "I can hold it for about twenty minutes."

"That'll do. Let's go."

* * *

They made their way to the compound, jogging, passing depressed villager after depressed villager. When they arrived at the compound about three minutes later – the kids' place was really close, a factor in why Yasha bought it – the compound gates were closed, with a rather obvious large paper fuuinjutsu seal on them, an inner kanji of 'Lock'.

Yasha was quite pleased as he observed a stoic-faced Keito. The kid's knowledge of Henge was a good asset. If he hadn't brought Keito to the Uchiha compound, it was fairly likely Keito would have made his way there in his own time, probably without even using the Henge.

Being told your house was destroyed or your family was dead wasn't something you could take at face value from anyone… your absolute closest friends, maybe? But Yasha couldn't pretend he was that to Keito. He was a babysitter a couple of times up until now, that was it.

The still transformed Keito frowned at the gates. A sign read plainly: 'Uchiha Compound. No entry permitted, under order of the Hokage.' Yasha's story looked more and more true… but it still didn't seem real.

"It's a tragedy, isn't it," a voice interrupted his contemplation, making them both jump.

They turned to see a nondescript villager, reddened brown eyes looking up at it. "Itachi was such a fine young man. I never thought he would be capable of this," The man said morosely.

Keito's frown deepened. "What happened here?" he asked bluntly.

"Didn't you hear?" the village sniffed, "Uchiha Itachi lost his mind and slaughtered the entire clan." Keito's eyes widened as the man went on. "Just his younger brother Sasuke is still alive, and I heard he's in a coma too…"

Keito shot the stony-faced Yasha a shocked look. _'It's true. No… it couldn't be true. No!'_

He was about to blurt something in protest when the villager continued, "There's a funeral service being held later by the Sandaime Hokage-sama. Itachi's been marked as a missing-nin, but the village… it's going to take a lot to recover from this."

Yasha shot a glare at Keito, who was open-mouthed, expressions flickering between rage, horror, disbelief, and shock. The villager gazed at him with a blank expression, which soon became pity. "Did you know some people here?"

"Hai," Keito said angrily, about to carry on with 'my entire family' when Yasha knelt down and hissed in his ear.

"Break cover and I _will_ kill you. The kids are not going to die because of you not getting a grip."

Keito glared back, and Yasha put his arm around him. "Thanks, villager-san," the older brunette said cheerfully, all signs of his threatening posture gone. "Do you know when the funeral's going to be held?"

"At 3pm, I believe. It's meant to last two hours."

"Thanks." Yasha smiled, grabbing Keito and starting to pull him back to the kids' house.

Keito shook him off angrily halfway there, beginning to shout at him. "Don't give me that _shit!_ How can you be happy about this?!"

Yasha scowled at him. The anger phase of grief. He had to play this phase right, as well. Keito would be pushing everyone away, and he had to remain strong and equally aggressive, but not overwhelming, lest Keito distance him too far. "Don't be a fucking _idiot_. I'm not _happy_ about this at all. Itachi was a good guy, and it's _shit_ that he had to do that."

"'Had to do that'?" Keito repeated, bewilderment overcoming his anger for a moment. "What do you mean?!"

Yasha growled, realising he misspoke. He took very good care of what he spoke normally. The headache must've screwed up that. "I'll tell you once you're older and once Itachi is out the picture. He had good reason, and too few options."

"Tell me now!" Keito snapped furiously. "It's _my_ clan, not yours!"

Yasha smiled twistedly. "Fine, I'll tell you now, then I'll _kill you_ to protect your brother and the rest of those kids."

He started to focus some anger onto the kid, mentally opening the can… Keito went rigid, eyes wide, as Yasha suddenly started giving off black smoke.

Yasha increased the pressure, and then blinked as Keito's eyes rolled back and there was a puff of chakra smoke as the kid fell back down, the Henge dispelling.

"Huh. KI can knock people out?" He smacked his forehead. "Duh, of _course_ it can. A lot of fear can knock…"

His pondering cut off and adrenaline suddenly shot through him as he realised there was now an Uchiha-lookalike kid right next to someone who had just given off a pulse of KI strong enough for any person to track in most of the village. _"Oh, __**shit**__."_

His thoughts raced. _'Kill him? Should I __**actually**__ kill him? No, a skeleton would be obvious. I have to hide him, or take him home. I don't have time to get home from here. Quick…'_

* * *

A pair of black eyes opened blearily, blinking. _'Wh- where am I?'_ Keito wondered. His eyes drifted to the patchy paintwork on the walls. _'Back here? He knocked me out?!'_

"It took you two hours to wake back up," Yasha commented idly. Keito shot a glare at him that withered from disbelief when he realised Yasha was cradling the small baby, with a bottle in its mouth and two tiny hands with a firm grip on Yasha's wrist. The infant was only slightly larger than Yasha's two forearms. "Hope you've calmed down now."

"You fed them?" Keito asked confusedly. Surely that would leave them with a group of kids they couldn't keep quiet.

Yasha snorted. "Duh. They needed breakfast. After I carried you back home, I woke them and fed them. You passed out when I got angry at you."

"Who's this, Yasha-niisan?" A black-haired two-year-old poked Keito's cheek experimentally, making him start and sit up.

"That's your other niisan." Yasha smiled down at him. The horrifying feeling that had knocked out Keito now seemed bizarrely otherworldly to him when he looked at that cheerful grin.

Keito did a double-take as he was immediately surrounded with curious toddlers, who started clambering onto him in their exploration.

Yasha chuckled at the spluttering eight-year-old who was now pinned to the sofa as the toddlers climbed onto him. "His name's Keito. He'll be helping me take care of you for the next few months. You all know the rules: play nice, keep quiet, and don't leave this room."

"Haiii!" several voices chorused. Keito tried to sit up under the squirming toddlers.

The poking kid spoke up. "Ne, ne, Keito-niisan, are you strong? Are you a nin-da too?"

"Baka! It's ninja!" Another boy about the same age corrected him.

"I knew that! Don't be mean, Ryūji!"

"I'm not!" Ryūji insisted.

"Are too!"

"Am-"

"Oi!" Yasha interrupted them. "You two. What's rule 1?"

"Play nice!" the kids echoed.

Yasha nodded shortly. "Right. So… stop arguing."

"Hai…" two subdued voices said.

Keito gazed at the now silent toddlers in perplexity. Even his usually-noisy, attention-seeking brother was noticeably quiet. "How'd you get them to be so… quiet?"

"Ninja techniques." Yasha smirked back at him. _'More like manipulation, but I guess ninja do that enough to qualify…'_

He turned to the group, gesturing with his hands as best he could holding a tiny baby. "Well, everyone, gather around. Since everyone's awake now, we'll do introductions."

"Hai!" They all sat in a circle, with the five-month-old baby dribbling onto a blanket on one side. Keito felt like he was dreaming at the sheer bizarreness of the situation, but he went with the momentum and sat down beside the toddlers. They were all staring at Yasha expectantly as he delicately fed the smallest baby from a warm formula bottle.

The Death Release user cleared his throat. "Now, let me explain. Since you all know the rules, tell me why they're important!"

"Scary people are outside!" Keito's brother Takeshi proclaimed. He turned to his brother, whispering at a volume Yasha could still easily hear, "Yasha-niisan's scary too."

Keito grinned weakly at him in acknowledgement, but his thoughts drifted an unhappy direction. _'Did Yasha get them to shut up with… whatever the heck he did to me to knock me out?'_

Yasha nodded smartly, suppressing a smile at being called scary. "Right, so if any of you break the rules, I will put _this_ thing on you. And it hurts, a lot. Keito will also put it on you if he sees you breaking the rules."

"Haiii," The two boys chorused, the girl toddlers uncertainly following.

"Rule 2 counts for these babies, too. Now, they're really small…"

"…and kawaii!" one of the girls squealed. Everyone blinked at her and she blushed a fierce red, hiding behind her hands.

"…And kawaii," Yasha continued gamely, "thanks Michiko-chan, but the babies get upset very easily. Don't let them cry, _ever_. Keito-kun and I will help keep them quiet. See this?"

He channelled some chakra into the floor, eliciting impressed 'ooh's from the crowd as the chakra channels and seals lit up a bright blue colour, blue lines lighting up as the seals on all six sides to the room lit up. Yasha smirked as the kids all looked awed. "This is a way to keep this room quiet. So if anyone's crying, it has to be in this room. The babies can't go out of this room."

"Where's Kaa-san?" the quieter girl Naoki interrupted.

Yasha paused as realisation swept across the group and they nodded questioningly. "She's… not available."

"Is she dead?" the just-plain-adorable girl asked stoically.

Yasha raised an eyebrow at the morbid mindset and gave up. Better now, than have them thinking you were lying to them for months. "Unfortunately, yes, she is."

Predictably, their faces scrunched up… but not as upset as Yasha expected, more to puzzlement or dislike than that.

_'They're at that age… weird. The book described it, but… it's __**weird**__ to see someone have no concept of death.'_ Yasha thought to himself.

He quickly brought himself back to reality. "Your parents are dead, and they have only two wishes for you – two things they want me and you to do." The toddlers leaned forward expectantly, the sobbing quietened for a while. "They want you to hide here, and they want me to take care of you."

Keito balked at the sheer magnitude of the lie Yasha was telling. He'd never met up with any of the parents. True, the audience was just four two-year-olds, but… he was _lying_ about their _parents_. The people they should be _grieving_ _over_.

He felt disgusted at Yasha. No, at this side of Yasha. The other side he could see in front of him as well, though, delicately holding the little plastic bottle to the weeks-old baby and constantly making reassuring humming noises.

Someone who would casually do something incredibly evil while feeding a helpless new-born. He was able to merge both evil and good together, and Keito wasn't sure which was a more genuine side of him. He wasn't sure if he liked his rescuer.

Especially now Yasha was taking the two that were crying in his arms and comforting them, still holding the baby, looking for all the world like he was the best older brother ever.

Keito stared impassively, catching Yasha's eyes, and the older boy just stared back, blankly. _'How does he really feel under all that?'_

* * *

It wasn't until Yasha had comforted the kids, introduced them to each other, and got out some books and simple card games, that Keito was able to take him aside to another room and confront him (albeit both of them with two babies in their hands – Keito feeding the older one, a rather noisy five-month-old baby called Tsuyoshi).

Keito wasn't sure if he kept the real names for the babies, another thing he wanted to ask but wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer to. He fixed Yasha with a glare.

"What?" Yasha asked in a surprisingly soft, brotherly tone.

Keito put it down to the fact he was still holding three-week-old Etsuko, and re-gathered his composure. "How can you do that?!"

"Do what?"

"That!" Keito gestured at him emphatically with his free hand. Tsuyoshi had a death grip on his larger bottle and a cute focused glare, as if daring Keito to pull it away, so the eight-year-old barely had to hold the bottle for him.

Yasha blinked at the younger boy owlishly. _'Uchiha and their inability to communicate.'_

"I'm a ninja, Keito-kun," he replied, his tone still soft and silky, almost like a comforting purr. "We're trained to respond to scenarios without letting emotions take over."

He sighed, gazing at the filthy window longingly, some part of him recognising the action meant his subconscious wanted to escape. "Although it _is_ a bit uncomfortable to pretend to know nothing, it's _far_ better than the alternative. I can keep up a façade for a short day, and all I have to do tomorrow, is keep it up for a day again. Just like you."

Keito took a while to process that. Yasha was confusing. Powerful, capable, mature… but he willingly showed that it was just an act. In a way, it was a reassuring honesty, but it was honesty about being dishonest. It made no sense.

"We're both the oldest relatives these kids have. Only one in there is a pure blood relation to you, but from now on, that doesn't matter, Keito." Yasha bent down in front of him, staring eye to eye, and Keito had to fight not to squirm as the memories of the earlier pressure kept flashing back through his head. "What matters is there are seven perfectly healthy children that need the best protection and care we can offer them."

Keito nodded his agreement, already set in his role. If his brother had to be bought up out of Itachi's sight in this house, he'd need friends… And they were all of one clan, even if they didn't know it. He would take care of them.

"Can you keep silent about where you are from, or will you set off a chain of events that will cause their death?" Yasha asked.

"I'll stay silent," Keito insisted, face determined.

"Can you… change nappies?"

And the determined look fled. Yasha burst out laughing, making Etsuko jump and look startled.

"I'm not doing that," Keito retorted defiantly. He wanted to fold his arms but couldn't with Tsuyoshi in his arms, so he just scowled at the older boy.

Yasha shrugged, instantly picking to play on Keito's pride. "Fine, but you'll have to learn eventually, you know. You don't really have a choice, unless you want her to develop infections. If you can't stomach poop, I don't know how you can pretend to be a ninja."

He ripped open a few packets that seemed applicable and sorted out the baby's nappy, carefully breathing through his mouth_. 'Seeing her naked will probably always make me feel uncomfortable…'_

It wasn't the first time he'd seen female babies naked, he caught a few glimpses in the orphanage when he was far smaller, but… it was disturbing to realise he could literally hurt her in the worst way and no one would even notice…

_'NO. KAMI DAMN IT! I'M NOT THINKING OF THAT __**SHIT!**__' _He cursed in his head as a certain _memory_ filled his head. '_Fuck no. Move on, damnit.'_

Etsuko regarded him curiously as he finished up (with his teeth gritted), her tiny fist in her mouth and gumming on it. Keito watched curiously from a few steps back, a bit wide-eyed from the view. He hadn't seen girls without pants before.

Yasha recovered after he'd finished tying the new nappy on, and frowned down at her wide, innocent eyes. He'd always found it amazing that human eyes didn't grow much at all after birth. "You're going to be a terror, aren't you?"

She kept on gumming wordlessly, her eyebrow twitching. "Yeah, she's going to be a complete terror," Yasha bemoaned his fate, not being fooled. "Don't get shaken by that innocent act."

If he hadn't had a chance to babysit for and thus knew the baby's clothes size, he was fairly certain the nappies wouldn't fit. And the three or so brands of nappies had different ranges and all were blurting about being the softest thing since sliced bread and gluten-free and no asbestos included. All with exclamation marks in different fonts. _'Thank Kami the Uchiha were prodigy enough to house-train all their kids super-early…'_

Yasha tossed the wrapped up dirty nappy at Keito, who caught it on automatic, before hastily dropping it like it was a hot coal. "Try putting it in the bin instead," Yasha suggested dryly.

"You do it!" Keito retorted indignantly, retreating at a high speed to the other corner of the room.

Yasha rolled his eyes, opting not to force the point, and did so. He re-clothed the baby and picked her up in a cradle hold. Gazing at her thoughtful black eyes, he began to wonder if she was meant to be so quiet, and wonder about the sleeping tag he had used. _'Hopefully there's no damage from the tag… but, how would I tell?'_

He had no experience with babies bar max two weeks' worth spread out over three months. He hadn't even babysat Etsuko twice. If she started sleeping too little or too much, he wouldn't know. If she was underdeveloped, or at all abnormally affected by the tag, he wouldn't know.

Brain damage? Unless she started head-butting walls when she needed to pee or some _really_ obvious crossed circuits, he wouldn't notice. The rest of the brats were two years or so, which gave a year and a half of question mark. He reached for the book he had bought on baby/toddler development, carefully reading six months and before.

_'Not much activity here… at six months babies on formula were recommended to start moving to solid food. Crap, that stuff comes in tiny expensive jars and in enough brands to fill half an aisle…' _Yasha sighed._ 'Well, anyway, nothing significant for Tsuyoshi, then. He's five months. Etsuko is only three weeks.'_

She stared at his face for the ten minutes he read, barely blinking and looking like she was trying to absorb his facial features with her big black eyes. _'That's vaguely cute and slightly creepy,'_ he thought to himself. _'Well, she'll be cared for the best I can give, and if someone can do it better, screw them because they aren't here to criticise.'_

For the time being, the toddlers seemed to be enjoying playing together. His toys were new toys to them, and he'd only bought ones that made no sound. Another thought struck him. _'Oh yeah, I have to buy some more toys once the novelty wears off on these. Hopefully they wouldn't cost too much… damn, these expenses are just racking up.'_

This baby was probably the easiest to care for. At three weeks old, she wouldn't voice opinions, she had no chance of remembering her parents, and any Japanese she heard would be indecipherable and quickly forgotten. He could blurt secrets around her (not that he planned to) and it'd be fine; there was no chance of her remembering it. Even a Yamanaka couldn't pull it out, because she didn't recognise language as anything more than sounds. She'd remember more of the more unusual sounds she heard more than she would remember spoken secrets. But he was no expert on Yamanaka, so he wasn't going to risk it if he could help it.

Draping himself on the old sofa (slowly, so there was no dust) he carefully laid the baby between on top and to the side of himself… and fell asleep in minutes.

Keito looked over and withheld a sigh as the baby began to make unhappy noises at the lack of activity. _'He's asleep already?'_

The Uchiha carefully pulled the baby up off his chest, supporting her head carefully, like he had to do with his younger brother. His mother really laid into him when he forgot…

"Yosh, yosh," he muttered half-heartedly, stroking her back in a circular motion like his mother used to do. She quieted down and he heaved a silent sigh of relief, his eyes trailing past her bushy black hair to the children – one of the girls reading the ninja-themed books on her own, the other girl reading to another toddler in halting and poor Japanese. She was the one who had asked about her parents, Keito recalled.

The final two toddlers, two boys, were playing with a ball, passing it between each other, one of them his otōto. _'Good, he's settling in. Wait, __**is**__ that good?'_ Keito's face scrunched up in thought, _'…I __**guess**__ it is…'_

Keito wanted to play too, but the baby – what was her name? – needed taking care of. He hesitated for a good minute before he realised the baby was just as bored by the inactivity as he was. That spurred him into sitting down and helping the two pass the ball while the baby looked on, while drooling from one side of her mouth.

Drool he only discovered after he got up a while later, much to his disgust.

She began to whimper at his displeased tone, and despite his best efforts, she wouldn't calm down, an adorably stuck-out bottom lip quivering. Keito gently bounced her up and down on his arm, her head bobbing slowly up and down over his shoulder.

And then she started crying, rather loudly. He cursed and rather pointlessly increased his bouncing to a more vigorous level, before giving up on that method of calming her down.

She continued shrieking, rather quietly due to her age, "Awha! Awha!"

Keito hastily moved over to the room seal and looked down at it. _'Just push chakra in, huh? So I just put my hand down and…'_

He grimaced as the chakra muffling kicked in – her screaming appeared to die down but was still noticeably loud. He bumped up his chakra output, struggling to focus on channelling his chakra into the seal whilst keeping her bouncing and not falling.

She looked comically puzzled by the lack of noise she was producing, and it seemed to confuse her. But she kept wailing.

The toddlers looked over one by one then wisely opted to not get closer, although some stayed staring at the baby's contorted expression, while others gazed with awe at the glowing blue lines trailing up the walls.

Keito recalled his younger brother had sounded like that ages back. What's-her-name wasn't calming down, though. And now his t-shirt was getting damp from the mini tears. At least it wasn't drool again.

He awkwardly held her in a sort of pinned position between his shoulder and right hand, whilst kneeling with his left hand busy channelling into the floor. It was tiring… he could see why it wasn't on all the time. He guessed he wouldn't be able to keep it up beyond fifteen minutes.

The fact she wiggled and pummelled tiny baby fists up and down wasn't helping.

He pumped even more chakra into the seal, realising he was going to run low in minutes at this rate. He called over to the older, sleeping brunette. "Yasha!"

His voice came out at the same volume as a mutter – and he blinked in realisation, scowling angrily. He was muting his own voice. "YASHA!" he bellowed as loud as he could.

And it came out as a mildly loud shout. And… Yasha didn't stir. He was too tired.

Keito cursed his fate even as he turned to his brother. "TAKESHI!" His brother looked over, calling back inaudibly, then looking perturbed at the seal's effect. Keito ignored his expression and just yelled, "WAKE UP YASHA!"

Takeshi looked between the screaming baby, Keito's irritated expression and sleeping Yasha… and went to wake him up. Keito felt relieved – Takeshi didn't tend to obey him, but he didn't even know any of the other kids' names. He would've belted Takeshi one if he hadn't obeyed, this was frustrating.

Yasha squinted at the dark-haired toddler waking him up. "Takeshi?" he mumbled, instantly waking up when his voice was muted. He saw the seals, then Etsuko looking rather unhappy in a flustered Keito's arms. He rolled his eyes wearily, fumbling for a pacifier in the drawer beside him.

A few seconds later, Etsuko calmed down with the pacifier in her mouth and Yasha holding her. She gazed with childish interest at his face and Yasha wondered what exactly caused her to be so interested in him. _'Whatever… shit.'_ He collapsed back onto the couch, sending up a small cloud of dust which made him curse himself for not remembering.

He glanced at his watch – about 1PM. He ran over the day in his head. '_6AM, I wake up in hospital, about 7AM I'm finally released, by 9AM I've put Naruto back to bed and gone to this place…'_ his eyes trailed the kids, checking they were all relatively happy, _'by 10AM Keito's been knocked out, and by 12PM he's back up… I talk with him and he feeds Tsuyoshi… shit, I've gotten barely any sleep. Like, fifteen minutes.'_

He slumped in sheer resignation, even Etsuko's adorably big eyes weren't helping. _'Kami, how am I going to take care of these from afar, if Keito can't handle them for fifteen minutes? Unless I'm very sure Keito's taken care of them properly, or I can do Kage Bunshin, this isn't going to work, I'll be jittery constantly and raise attention… and I've got a full month until graduation, before I can get Kage Bunshin without anyone informing the Hokage that I know of it._

_'Until then I have to go to the Academy, since I've got a full month. If I keep running off every lunch break, people will notice. I might be able to do it a few times during the month, but nothing too common. Plus Naruto would be totally alone during lunch break, and I don't want his classmates attacking him.'_

He frowned, but it didn't reach his face, he was too heavy and tired. **_'Would_**_ they attack him? Well, not most of his class, I already know about their personalities, but I don't know about the rest of the classes… but Naruto can't be left alone questioning why every day…'_

He woke back up with a start, noticing Etsuko was asleep on his chest, the pacifier still stuck in her mouth somehow. Keito was playing with the rest of the kids. They all looked contented enough and the scene actually looked quite homey. His mouth twitched towards a smile and he let himself drift back off.

And woke up with Keito shaking him. "Oi, Yasha. Yasha. The older ones need lunch," The eight-year-old said importantly.

Yasha groaned, but he wasn't really feeling the pain much – his headache had lessened a good amount. At least, he would be able to stay awake much more easily. He still needed rest, though.

"Let's go, then, I'll make um… ah, shit…" he muttered, trailing off in thought. He had planned to make bento when he was here, but he hadn't counted on being KO'd during the noon hours. _'Well, I'll just have to improvise and make something quick now, I guess. I don't trust the stove here…but whatever. I need to start making some bento at home and bringing it here in a rucksack or something… quick meals aren't healthy and I don't want them playing with the stove after seeing me use it._

_'Well, they can make do while I make it now, I guess. I'll have to do something or they'll start getting sibling rivalry everywhere over who was served first. Eh, they're toddlers.'_

"Fine, Keito-kun. I'll make some egg on toast for you guys." Yasha rubbed his face, carefully moving a now-damp Etsuko to the side.

* * *

"He seems to not get along with the Third Hokage. It could be due to his bloodline," Kabuto reported to the shadowy figure.

Orochimaru nodded, a slight frown on his face. "And this bloodline causes suspicion of him from the moment you first see him?"

"Hai. It's reported that he controls insect swarms, and said swarms tend to collect in the heart and brain area for anyone he stays too long around. So it's my theory that the swarms infiltrate anyone he stays around, and cause the suspicion as a sort of… protection," Kabuto offered uncertainly. "Even when he's asleep or injured, he appears dangerous. I've confirmed that myself."

"And medical techniques do not work?" the Sannin pressed.

"The same swarms prevent chakra entry. He's resistant to genjutsu and seals due to that."

_'That's pretty powerful…'_ Orochimaru thought to himself. "It doesn't seem like he'll be a suitable candidate for body transfer, then."

"No, they have extreme difficulty using any technique that puts chakra in his system – even Yamanaka techniques failed. Danzō has also confirmed this using Fū. He's ideal for being a spy or double agent, and Danzō has suspicions he is one, so he's trying to recruit him.

"There are also very interesting traits that Shikaku has suggested, one being he may be capable of using the swarms to enforce a genjutsu flow on someone, so making an unreleasable genjutsu. And with no extra chakra used to maintain that flow."

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed in thought. This boy seemed like a problem. Maybe not now, since he wasn't very capable, but if he mastered his own bloodline… it would be a significant problem. Many of his abilities were unmatched, both current and predicted ones. "And any history of his bloodline?"

"No. I've scoured what I could of Danzō's archives. Not a whisper of Death Release, or anything relating to his condition. I also investigated the Aburame compound's archives…" Orochimaru silently noted that doing that was no mean achievement – a single watching bug Kabuto missed would ruin it. Kabuto was indeed talented. "…and they have no record of his swarms either. However, they have made reports of the kikaichu reaction to him."

'Dark, predatory, hungry; insects retreat from exterior and are very unwilling to approach,' Orochimaru read, a grin now appearing. This boy seemed _very_ dangerous, but his previous dislike was fading already as the Sannin imagined him in his own corps.

"He's definitely got a dislike for Konoha, after its treatment of Naruto." Kabuto read where Orochimaru was going. "However, for some reason, the Third has given him several liberties, I'm assuming that's due to his association with Naruto. However, perhaps due to his bloodline or other reasons, he's often confronted him."

"How are his academic scores?"

"Ah…" Kabuto handed over the relatively small amount of school records Yasha had to the Snake Sannin, who pored over it quickly. "He's only been in the Academy for a couple of months, as you know, and teachers suspect he's hiding his true ability. He's never consciously used his bloodline in fights. His taijutsu is fairly bad, but has unusual self-made styles, his ninjutsu is average, and his genjutsu ability is very good. He scores highly on knowledge and theory tests, and has caught up on schoolwork already, despite his very late entry. I also brought Naruto's record, since it's commonly assumed he's living with Yasha."

Orochimaru glanced at the score improvement, not too interested in Naruto but noting the correlation. "So, Yasha-kun's a prodigy as well?"

Kabuto nodded. "Hai. This is part of the reason people are uneasy around him. He's also been noted to meet with Itachi and Shisui, prior to the massacre, in Danzō's records."

"Hmm." Orochimaru flipped through the pages idly, before his mind caught something. "So he comes into the village with sufficient funds to rent a building and support himself _and_ that idiot boy of Minato's for months?"

"The Hokage doesn't seem to be supporting him, from his personal account or from the village's funds. He's within his legal right to do so, being Naruto is the Jinchūriki of the Kyuubi, and an orphan, and so must be taken care of," Kabuto pushed his glasses up his nose, being an orphan himself, "but I've noticed no funds exiting."

His spy had checked a lot of areas, Orochimaru noted approvingly. It was well worth recruiting Kabuto, it had more than paid off even without his medical expertise.

So, Root was empty of information on how Yasha got into the village or why he went for Uchiha. Orochimaru already suspected it wasn't Root, Danzō wouldn't be so flippant at sending a untrained orphan to befriend the Jinchūriki. The Third had several reasons to protect the brat.

And it wasn't the Third, he was too suspicious of Yasha… so an enemy country? No, it'd be odd that Itachi would leave him alive if he was even _questionably_ hostile to Konoha.

So, someone who knew the Uchiha were planning a coup, and wanted to prevent it, yet wanted to stay hidden – it was possible the Fire Daimyo was getting involved somehow, but the man usually let ninja mind their own business.

"It's another mystery, Kabuto," he hissed, the sound a mixture of unpleasant irritation and scientific intrigue.

Kabuto nodded, holding back the flinch at Orochimaru's tone. "I would investigate further, but if Danzō and the Third has no resources on his origin, I doubt I will find much."

"I expect Jiraiya was tasked with searching that anyway." Orochimaru mused.

"I haven't seen him return to the village. Danzō has also not noticed it."

Orochimaru frowned. It was still likely he was tasked, and he might have returned to Konoha covertly – not many shinobi could spot a Sannin. Even a bumbling oaf of a pervert Sannin. He had invented the Tōton technique after all, stealth was probably the only thing he could pull off without spewing blood out of his nose or announcing something loudly about women.

But back to more pleasant thoughts. "And the most recent development with Yasha?"

"ANBU Operative Yūrei has been tasked to watch him and Sasuke," Kabuto reported eagerly.

"Yūrei?" Orochimaru repeated, looking inquisitive. Ghost was not a name of an animal. An unknown ANBU. "And who is that?"

"The black mask of Konoha? The only ANBU with a black mask? Have you not heard of him?" Kabuto said in surprise.

Orochimaru fixed him with an icy gaze that made the man shiver. "I apologise, Orochimaru-sama," Kabuto stammered, pushing his glasses out of nerves as he searched his memories. "He joined the ANBU around the close of the second Shinobi War. He's proficient in fuuinjutsu and specialises in stealth and infiltration. He's also a member of Root, and Danzō trusts him very highly."

"How's his mission record?" Orochimaru asked idly, tossing the papers back on the desk as his brain found a new target.

"Perfect, a perfect mission record," Kabuto said hastily. "He has dual Sharingan, but it's not certain if he's an Uchiha."

"Kabuto," Orochimaru hissed slowly and deliberately, killing intent gradually rising. The jounin sweated bullets as the cold eyes turned slowly to face him, his tone icy. "How did you _forget_ to inform me he had Sharingan when I asked for a report on _every_ Uchiha and _every_ notable shinobi with Sharingan?!"

"I… er…" Kabuto blinked as he thought back. How did he forget? That was… he just… well, Yūrei had to have been around, and if he was around since the Second Shinobi War… he must have completely skipped his mind when Kabuto gathered the files. "I must have overlooked him, I'm sorry, Orochimaru-sama."

Orochimaru glared at him, but the KI had vanished. "Fine. In two days, I want you back here, with all the records you can find from any source in Konoha on this Yūrei. Find out his real identity and his origin. And if he's an Uchiha. He may be a more viable target than Itachi."

Kabuto nodded hastily, putting the papers down and vanishing in a body-flicker.

A full two minutes passed in complete stillness.

Then the Sannin crossed his arms, a deep frown crossing his face. He was _there_ during the Second Shinobi War, and the whole Third War. He knew of where ANBU were positioned, and commanded them personally on several occasions. There was no way he would miss out on seeing Yūrei. There was no way a front-line Sannin would never hear of a silent killing and infiltration ANBU.

And there was no way he would forget someone that powerful with Sharingan.

Kabuto wasn't that sloppy, either, not someone who could infiltrate the Aburame compound, Root and the Chuunin exams, not to mention spy on several of the Elemental Nations.

The very faintest twinge of chakra flow rearranging before Kabuto had responded fixated his suspicion. If Orochimaru hadn't been fully focused on his chakra to check for dishonesty, even as a Sannin, he would have missed it.

Yūrei had used a very powerful genjutsu on the entirety of ANBU, and most likely the entire elder council and the Hokage himself – something that rivalled Kotoamatsukami itself.

* * *

**AN:** The plot thickens! …like milk going bad.  
(I've used that metaphor already, but it's been stuck in my head, making me chuckle, so there you go…)

I will warn you guys – this story has several timelines, manipulative liars, and confusing reality-bending genjutsu wielders. Depending on who's perspective the reader is seeing it from, you may see the lie or the truth. Finding out the full truth will take pure genius, but it will be one _heck_ of a ride!

Note that canon states that Kotoamatsukami requires years of cool-down before it can be re-used, unless you have the First Hokage's vitality as Danzō had thru his arm.

The reason Danzō couldn't use it Koto immediately during canon fight with Sasuke, was the cells weren't assisting the recovery period, as their healing powers were suppressed under that big metal arm seal.  
In a village with multiple sensor-nin, plus having to be around the Third a lot, it's pretty hard to hide the First Hokage's chakra without the seal; I think Danzō first used Koto to get the Third to ignore his mysteriously-injured arm, in canon. (Not sure what episode, though.)

Yūrei won't steal the spotlight, since I don't like stories that deviate too far from the main OC… plus he's meant to stay in the shadows, being ANBU and all. However, it'll become apparent his power is the result of many decades of hard training and deceiving strong people into teaching him with forbidden genjutsu.

At any rate Yūrei's job of watching Yasha/Sasuke will be expired when graduation hits, as their individual jounin-senseis will have to watch them. Who knows, he may emerge just to die. Depends how the story goes.

Do you guys have any questions you want to ask any of the canon characters? It won't affect the story direction, of course, but you're welcome to ask; I'll put it in the author notes on the next chapter.


	25. Due to luck, or strangers?

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 25: Due to luck, or strangers?_**

* * *

Despite Yasha's efforts, pouting ensued over the egg on toast and who was served first. He could hardly make food for four toddlers simultaneously; it'd get cold. And he had no idea of portions, so Keito had to rescue him there. One slice for all the toddlers seemed to make them happy.

Not all knowledge could be found without someone closer to the problem. Keito was a good help. Now that he actually thought about it, it would be all sorts of impossible to watch the kids until graduation without Keito.

Yasha mentally cursed himself. He subconsciously thought he wouldn't actually be able to rescue them, so his brain had neglected to even consider 'hello, you're planning to rescue _ten kids_ and take care of them for _months_ **_completely_** **_unobserved_**, how the hell is that going to work'.

He felt like an idiot.

He _hated_ feeling like an idiot.

He hated it when his subconscious/conscious connection was screwed up. Kami, if only brains came with only one… section… thing.

Yasha knew the subconscious was powerful. It memorised everything. It saw everything, and prioritised importance, then sent important stuff to the conscious.

That was why Yamanaka could walk through memories of entire scenes to levels of detail even the person they were interrogating couldn't 'remember'. They tapped into the subconscious, bypassing the importance barrier – the same damn barrier that stopped you from remembering what it deemed unimportant.

Oh, sure, the unimportant things sometimes _did_ truly get buried. But it was rare; it all hinged on your emotions you were feeling, hormones in flux, whatever – chemical levels in the brain, which actually _did_ affect the subconscious. If you went through a traumatic event, you might forget the entire rest of the day. Maybe the week. Or the month.

…And that brought Yasha's thoughts back to Sasuke. He frowned, shovelling the last batch of egg onto his own piece of toast, without really thinking about it, checking everyone was eating, not flinging it on the floor or whatever, and making sure all the brats were in sight.

Sasuke.

He wasn't really a _problem_ per se. In the original timeline, he fled just after Tsunade returned, in a huff about a lack of power. With a neck hickey from Orochimaru apparently helping that. Odd, but he became really set on his mission to get stronger to defeat his brother… because his brother said so. Personally, that left Yasha thinking Sasuke was a bit dumb. Surely anyone would have mulled over the events and what was said in his head enough if your whole life goals was set by it. Consider that perhaps, doing the will of someone you _hate_ wasn't such a good idea.

Wouldn't be the greatest middle finger ever to Itachi to come at him with a team instead of Mangekyō that Itachi had requested? Rather than blindly following his family killer's will?

Well, Sasuke hadn't killed Naruto when he fled, to gain Mangekyō, so that was something. Some part of him must've recognised the contradiction. Probably his subconscious, since he was a real I-hate-everyone ass later.

Personally, Yasha considered Sasuke's hatred of Konoha well justified. Yasha hated them for how they treated Naruto… he still wasn't sure how he wasn't assassinating everyone that glared at the kid.

There were more types of abuse than punches. Naruto would've turned out like Sasuke if his personality was different – possibly the constantly massive amounts of chakra he had forced him to be energetic, which prevented him from ever taking on dull, dark, become-a- depressed-blob personality. Ironic that the thing that caused his persecution was the same thing that made him have the energy to bounce back from it.

Yasha didn't like to admit it, but he didn't find it easy to work out when Naruto had been abused. His injuries healed rapidly, and he plastered a grin on in seconds after any traumatising event. If he did have injuries, he'd blame it on tripping, walking into things, dropping things – Yasha was well used to that sort of excuse. The blond was not as inattentive to the scenario as he made out.

If someone starts coincidentally getting a large number of bruises when you leave them alone, due to 'clumsiness', that was the biggest indicator of ABUSE. In big capitals.

Thank Kami no one had _sexually_ abused him though. Yasha would kill that damn son of a bitch without even _considering_ leaving it otherwise.

Hell, no, on second thoughts, he'd knock him out with what he was planning to ask to learn from Kurenai next: a knockout genjutsu.

And then Yasha would keep him knocked out. Then he'd use him for a damn Edo Tensei sacrifice on whoever Yasha felt needed to come back. Since the sacrifice body was buried until the technique was dispelled, it wouldn't matter who he picked.

Maybe the First Hokage? That would be funny, reviving the First to let him see how his village was doing. Orochimaru used Edo Tensei to grab the First's soul at some point prior to the Chuunin exam invasion, so there wasn't a lot of time if Yasha wanted to reserve the soul for himself and stump Snake-face when he attempted to perform it.

The Third died sealing them during his battle, so that smelled like the Reaper seal again – which put the souls out of reach, presumably, since the Fourth didn't turn up to the Chuunin Invasion as well, and that blond idiot was well capable of taking down the Third on his own with his superior speed and teleportation jutsu. As an Edo Tensei he'd be near unbeatable. Plus, there was a faint possibility of him tapping into the Kyuubi's power, but seeing as he was _dead_, fairly unlikely.

Yasha wondered if his own bloodline actually gave him special abilities over the dead. The Kyuubi himself had called it Death Release, after all. It was one of the extremities of spiritual chakra balances, or something. Surely that meant it had more to do with death than just a name.

Although, it was more like Carnivorous Air Piranha Release to Yasha. It even attacked raw meat, not just living cells. So maybe the name was just misdirection. Or the Rikudō Sennin hadn't had time to come up with something better. Yasha knew how _that_ felt.

"This is really yummy Yasha-nii!" Ryūji interrupted his thoughts.

"Mm!" Ryūji agreed. The two toddler girls (Michiko and Naoki) just nodded quietly.

Yasha smiled at them, chugging a few mouthfuls of water to lose the egg lump in his throat. Toddler taste buds were easily pleased. "It's the salt that makes it, the egg would be pretty naff without it."

They probably hadn't had simple 'peasant' meals like egg on toast. A proud clan like the Uchiha would probably do a long-winded traditional breakfast that took an hour to make, and involved five different bowls with varying sauces, and chopsticks as a requirement. Egg on toast was probably ripped out of the recipe book and kunai stabbed.

These kids probably didn't even regret moving to a new place. Their parents' deaths didn't make much sense to them; they were too young to understand what death even was. No chopsticks in sight and no superfluous physically-meaningless socially-meaningful rules about when to eat and how to eat and what to eat first and what to eat with what and what does it mean socially if you like this particular sauce…

Okay, that was probably an exaggeration. But Yasha could imagine it – the higher social class had a lot of rules that went way beyond speaking formally. Anything up-and-coming would be inspected on levels of detail most people would find ridiculous. If Sasuke decided to wear neon bright colours, people would be checking the stars for why, putting it in the local news (possibly), observing political movements of any country with a lot of that colour, commenting on if it showed off the colour in his eyes… gossipers and devoted fans were worse than astrologers sometimes.

Yasha would find it hilarious to do something big like resurrect the First Hokage, but he would never let himself be actually associated with it. People would compare him to Orochimaru, and to the Second Hokage, just as a _start,_ for using the Edo Tensei technique in the first place. He'd leave the house and people would be whispering. Hell, people would be _watching_ his house, checking he wasn't going to grab some random civilian and Edo Tensei someone's soul into their butt.

Yasha desperately held back his laughter but still snorted, imagining a pure soul brought back from the afterlife and literally shoved into someone's butt.

Now _that_ would be a grand return for the God of Shinobi!

But anyway, fame of any kind would irritate Yasha within hours. He liked being respected, but he hated being a topic of conversation. Really hated it. Rumours tended to go wild and sourceless.

A lie repeated often enough becomes truth; the original source gets lost because everyone has the same opinion after a while. It goes from one person, to a few, to a branch of people, and back through other people – slightly differently each time, until it hits the original person in a subtly different manner; and that person doesn't associate it with what he started.

If say, Ino, saw Kurenai and Kakashi eating in the same restaurant, if she told that to Person A, Person A could pass it on as 'Kurenai and Kakashi eating together' to Person B, who passes it on as 'Kurenai and Kakashi dating' to Person C, who become 'Kurenai and Kakashi in a relationship', and Ino would hear they were in a relationship from Person C and nod sagely… completely not making the connection to the original rumour she started.

And by the time Asuma heard of it perhaps just later on in the day, maybe days later, he'd be completely confused. And by that time, the rumour mill had hit such a confusing web there was no point trying to get rid of the rumour by going to each person and countering it, much less track the origin. Ino would deny saying she said they were in a relationship – and she hadn't.

And what that meant for Yasha, if someone told one of his manipulated subjects all about the deeds Yasha did that they shouldn't know of, who knew what would happen? Yasha wouldn't obviously hear of it; and he'd treat the subject just the same, which could be the worst decision ever.

At least now Yasha knew why Danzō invented Root's tongue seals. ANBU were secret anyway – any ANBU was meant to never speak of any mission on punishment (very likely) being death, but there you go. So a seal wasn't particularly uncalled for, and the tongue could be checked easily without being visible regardless of the clothes you wore. Armpits wouldn't be a bad replacement, and all they restricted was vests.

Anyway, back to Sasuke. Yasha wasn't particularly interested in keeping him in Konoha or setting him on a different path… well, he hadn't been, but then yesterday night had happened.

Itachi had trusted Yasha, and Yasha alone, to watch his little brother.

And Itachi's kill-me mission for Sasuke did not include hating or loving Konoha, but Itachi was (to a rather disturbing extent) in love with the place. Itachi wanted Sasuke to have strength. If Sasuke hated Konoha, and left, it would be against Itachi's wishes.

"Well, shit, I guess I have to fix that too…" Yasha murmured, suddenly bored with eating. Chew, chew, chew, the same damn repetitive motion. Kami, bring on a more efficient mouth.

So, he had to get Sasuke lovin' on Konoha. Naruto might be able to help him on that. The buildings were fairly pretty, as far as village buildings go, but… Yasha didn't see what Naruto saw in it. At least, not to the extent as Naruto's dedication went.

Maybe he never fully realised that there were other places. Places where no one would know he was a Jinchūriki and glare at him.

Or maybe Naruto had been hit with a genjutsu.

Yasha rolled that idea around for a while. Brainwashing manipulative tactics were more likely than outright genjutsu to love Konoha. But Naruto could barely read the propagandist smut that was the Academy textbooks, so that was hardly a possibility.

That left just Shisui's Kotoamatsukami – it took a while to recharge, no? It could have recharged in time for the massacre if he had been tasked to hit Naruto at a young age. Danzō trying to steal both Shisui's eyes would be pointless if one was blind and unusable, after all.

It was a possibility. It was a powerful genjutsu, good enough for Danzō to ruin another Sharingan eye with Izanagi to obtain it; even the Kyuubi might not have noticed a genjutsu of that calibre. How old was Shisui, when had he activated Mangekyō? Did he have time to use and then recharge? Would Danzō/the Third deem it necessary to hit Naruto with it?

Oddly, Yasha didn't feel unsettled by the idea of a genjutsu used on Naruto as a toddler. A conniving smirk crossed his face instead. _'If Naruto's been manipulated, I'll just scrap that control measure. Just like I told Ibiki: "The damage has been done, and a new architect has taken over construction. I'll protect him from you bastards if I have to wipe out this entire village."'_

And the smirk faded to grim determination. He _would_. He would wipe out this whole damn village if they so much as tried to take Naruto away, through _any_ sort of manipulation. They had their chance, and all they gave Naruto was abuse, neglect, and hatred.

Oh yes, child abuse was something he was familiar with, on levels he'd rather not think about (but constantly had returning to his mind). Naruto had endured the worst of physical and emotional abuse, all but alone. Possibly, the Third could be counted as a companion, but the Third had boundaries on how much interaction he could have – the civilians could only take so much contact with their beloved leader and a manipulative demon they made Naruto out to be before he tainted him.

The grin came back, rather creepy, and he hid it behind his hands, lest the toddlers get disturbed. The villagers were looking in the wrong direction for the manipulative demon.

Yasha resolved to move genjutsu and mind control up to the top of his training list. Again. Kurenai was happy to teach him, and she'd be coming back from the mission tomorrow.

He also resolved to ask Naruto later while using a mental connection, and see if any thoughts seemed off. If Naruto's mind blanked while he said he loved Konoha, that would be a rather obvious hint…

* * *

Hiruzen sat down with a sigh. He'd been up all night dealing with the aftermath of the battle.

First, the actual clean-up duty, tucking away and identifying the bodies. With Root's manpower, it had gotten done quicker, but that still left the problem of eyes. Everyone had to be searched for it, a nasty business. Having ANBU watch ANBU didn't really work, unless all you wanted was confusion and inefficiency.

Any other night, Hiruzen would have had Yūrei seal the borders with an Uchiha Kaenjin [Uchiha Flame Formation]. But the guy, stoic as he might be about it, was worn thin after yesterday. It was hard to spot, but Hiruzen had called on Yūrei's services often enough to work out when he was tired, even though Yūrei's fuuinjutsu left him with no chakra presence at all (until he expelled chakra).

And Yūrei was definitely flagging when he was done reporting to Hiruzen; a huge barrier the size of the compound wouldn't last more than a couple of minutes. Plus maintaining a several-hundred-metres-high bright red barrier was also a good way to signal to the world in general something was off at the Uchiha compound, and then the ninja and civilians alike would have to be turned away, extra manpower.

Plus the village barrier contained the Uchiha compound, which meant the two barriers would have met in the air, and who knew what _that_ would cause.

Naruto had to be informed Yasha had been knocked out – thank Kami-sama the kid hadn't _died _or Hiruzen would have to had dealt with a potential Kyuubi unsealing as well – so Hiruzen had sent Yūrei after him, knowing his Sharingan would help if the Kyuubi did try to rear its ugly head. Kakashi would have been the second choice, since he was not an Uchiha, and was less proficient in use of the Sharingan.

The silver-haired jounin was put in charge of keeping the villagers outside, despite his protests about his tracking abilities and going after Itachi.

Hiruzen had to go see Naruto to ensure he wasn't panicking, and place an ANBU guard over him, to ensure he wasn't harassed in the hospital. Even the elder council couldn't disagree with him calming down a Bijū container.

By then it was about 1AM. He'd sent a shadow clone to do it, not willing to risk leaving things alone.

Meanwhile, Itachi had to be 'tracked', but that was completely implausible. ANBU tracking techniques against ANBU counter-tracking techniques. Hiruzen knew he was innocent, as well, and so made sure he had a good head start. It was all but impossible to catch him.

After the body count had been done, it was confirmed every Uchiha bar Sasuke was dead. Six sets of eyes were missing; two single eyes destroyed from weapons

Then Hiruzen had to deal with Root, making sure Danzō dismissed them and that they knew they no longer reported to him.

Yūrei, bless that man, had assured Hiruzen if Danzō's Root resumed, Yūrei would definitely be called on, and he'd inform the Hokage as soon as he could. Hiruzen had ordered him to rest, seeing he was barely standing – the most exhausted the Kage had ever seen him, but still capable of being stoic.

And finally Hiruzen had gone back to Naruto, mostly to relax. And true to his nature, the blond had managed to cheer him up about the whole nasty affair.

Then Hiruzen, at coming on 5AM, had to report to the chief editors of the three local newspapers that ran in Konoha, give them the details of the Uchiha massacre, and then review their articles to ensure they weren't saying anything _too_ revealing. One wanted a picture of Itachi with the article, all of them wanted pictures of the bodies, but Hiruzen point-blank refused the latter. After some haggling, but only some, since the editors had deadlines even if this was the biggest news story of the year.

Then he was told Yasha was awake; Hiruzen left the three editors and dragged himself to the hospital to get a debriefing, only to find Danzō was in there, making moves on Yasha, inflated sense of self-worth and all. If Hiruzen wasn't so tired, and knew Danzō was feeling that strain too, he'd be furious.

Damn politics restricting him. He wanted to throw that idiot of an ex-teammate in jail. Except with Root possibly still active, Danzō could bust out, and then the attempt to steal Hiruzen's place as Kage wouldn't be so covert.

It was against Hiruzen's nature to call for assassination of what _was_ a close friend, after all, even if his loyalty was a bit perverted, it was still to Konoha. The political backlash of an elder council member dying would be huge, and Danzō no doubt had his fingers in several pies – markets, trade routes, other countries, stocks… having him dead may well capsize Konoha's economy from loss of funding to vital errors.

Hiruzen wouldn't put it past him to have it as a trump card, although it probably wouldn't kill Konoha entirely. He was too loyal for that. He'd just want to make a statement about Hiruzen's rashness and how crucial he was to Konoha posthumously, a middle finger from beyond the grave.

Hiruzen then had to call a meeting of all the elder council members and shinobi clan heads at 6AM – since they'd be pissed off if they heard of the Uchiha clan downfall from civilian newspapers; that would send a message about civilians were more important than shinobi.

He didn't inform them about Yūrei's or Yasha's involvement, nor of the coup Itachi prevented, and definitely not about the coup attempt, although judging from Inoichi and Shikaku's expressions, they connected the dots. Shikaku had gained that thoughtful expression that told Hiruzen he smelled something off with the story – it was fairly obvious even Itachi couldn't take down every Uchiha member.

Writing a quick note for Iruka that Yasha and potentially Naruto might be absent from the Academy that day, and some basics about Sasuke's absence, he delivered it to the chuunin.

It was only at about 8AM, two hours past the time he normally got up to work, he quickly made three clones who read through all three newspapers' final drafts to ensure they'd kept their end of the deal, then he could finally rest.

He had ignored the everyday paperwork and done just that, asleep seconds after his greying head hit the pillow.

* * *

Yasha spent four hours with the brats total, before he went back to Naruto, who thankfully hadn't woken up until he got there. He gazed at the innocent-looking Kyuubi container, and idly ran his hand through Naruto's soft puff of blond hair, smiling faintly as the blond murmured something incoherent.

As Yasha tiredly went back to the small living-room in his house and sat with a thump (and no dust) on the sofa, a thought came to him and he silently cursed. He'd forgotten something crucial.

Beds.

He'd forgotten beds. Sure, he'd just KO'd the toddlers and left them on the floor yesterday night, but that obviously wasn't something he could do every day. Potential brain damage and expensiveness of knockout tags left that not an option, and kids couldn't fall to sleep normally on wooden floors.

The toddlers needed beds, at bare minimum just mattresses, but hopefully the furniture store sold 'unseal fully constructed beds' scrolls.

But if he bought beds, they'd either have to set them up outside of the silence-seal-containing-room, which was risky if any had nightmares or whatnot, or have something that he could reseal without too much chakra.

No, resealing was out as well; chakra usage resulted in KI release for him, and Keito almost definitely didn't have the chakra levels for it. Reducing Keito of chakra before morning would be risky, he'd be unable to activate the silence seal.

Yasha might be able to get away with the unsealing bed scrolls as a one-off, but when it came to constantly unsealing and resealing, he'd gain the attention of the neighbours, the ANBU, or who knew. No, beds were out, mattresses or futons only.

Futons then; they were designed to roll up and tuck away. Mattresses would be more comfortable, but more expensive anyway, and it'd take up space.

He hoped he wouldn't gain too much attention buying toddler-sized futons the day after the massacre.

Was someone watching him right now? Well, it'd be likely to assume so. Yasha felt a chill ride up his spine. He felt rather sure that he was being watched. By whom? Danzō? No, he'd be laying low after the Third raged about getting Itachi to kill everyone. Orochimaru wouldn't poke his head into Yasha's business while there were Sharingan to pluck. So that only left the Third 'making sure Yasha was alright' with an ANBU squad… but he had promised to remain off of him.

Until the coup came to a conclusion, which it had. So all bets were off.

Cringe and shiver. He now was rather sure he felt someone's eyes on him. In which case they'd seen him visiting the brats.

Hmm. Only a complete idiot of an ANBU wouldn't report it to the Hokage via shadow clone – or even abandoning Yasha to do so. Yet the Hokage hadn't exactly turned up while he was with the kids, talking about 'well done' or 'why did you trick me about saving them' or 'nice idea, but kids can't be taken care of well by you'.

Nearly all ANBU with their brains in gear would report it on the spot, but any watcher hadn't reported in. Either because he was some emotionless fruitcake who would only report exactly when he had been told to (one of Root? cringe cringe), or because he had plans of his own for the Uchiha (shiver), or he was waiting to see why Yasha was taking care of them outside of the Hokage's sight…

If it was a whole squad watching him, there was no way all of them would be of the same mind and wouldn't send anyone to the Hokage to report. So that left only a single person watching him right now… who was he and what were his motives?

He looked around worriedly. Damn ANBU, you could never see them. Even if he did, what was he going to do? Attack him in the middle of his home? He'd get his butt kicked.

A chuunin could probably take him in these conditions; Yasha couldn't use his bloodline in the middle of town, and that was the only decent attack he had.

And Itachi had still pummelled him when he used it. Pure speed plus solid clone equals defeat, unfortunately.

If Yasha attempted to increase his moving speed via Henge, he'd lose bone density, which made any impact damage much worse – even if he was as light as a feather and as fast as… well, whatever was fast, he wouldn't be able to punch without shattering the bones in his fist, his wrist, his arm, probably up his shoulder and half his ribcage, with the amount of density he'd have to lose to get that fast.

Not to mention, foot speed didn't equal eye speed. He wouldn't be able to see anything but an blur in his whole vision – it'd be tunnel vision to the max, and a slight misstep over a rock equalled shattered bones everywhere assuming he didn't undo the Henge in time.

Right now, he had practised a Henge that reduced his weight enough to make him about twenty times faster than normal; he couldn't much of anything, and he couldn't really change his body posture or move his limbs due to the wind resistance, so he used it as a body flicker type of technique; apply Henge, run about twenty paces at full speed, dispel. He had practised that a few times.

He could hold out a kunai or a grabby hand, but he couldn't swing his arms or kick; attacking would have to be glancing off their body like a tangent.

And for that, he'd have to see the target. And so no, he couldn't even take on whatever ANBU was following him in the middle of town.

So, time to switch to a wide open area – where he could see them. He didn't have to worry about their hiding methods – any genjutsu he'd at least detect, even if it was one he couldn't see through; the insects would see to that. An area that was rocky enough to make any Earth hiding techniques horrendously difficult… was there any place like that in the forest-filled Konoha?

It didn't seem likely. Kids wouldn't know of any, and that just left adults… who would be suspicious of him… but eh. Maybe he could ask at Ichiraku's while with Naruto, that'd take some attention off him.

That was, if there even _was_ an ANBU watching him and it wasn't just his nerves getting the better of him. Paranoia, simultaneously the best and worst mindset a ninja could have. Practically expected in most jounin.

There was another way – going to the Hokage and plainly asking him 'did you put a tail on me'. The Hokage wouldn't give it away with his expression, but his _thoughts_ were another matter.

But it all but told the man that Yasha had done something he hadn't wanted being seen doing. About as subtle as waving a sign that read "I hope I'm not being watched!".

Again, not an option.

Hell, no, he couldn't corner an ANBU. Even if he had an area like that, and wide enough the ANBU couldn't just skitter around the sides to observe, and couldn't hide in the ground (or the sky), he'd be fast enough to hide whenever Yasha looked his way – maybe just Henge himself to the size of a pebble. Yasha had made his Henge all but smokeless. The large puffs of chakra smoke had degraded to thin wisps and then to barely anything. The smoke was just excess chakra, and fixing that was just improving chakra control, after all.

Thanks to the insects, his chakra control was naturally excellent, so then it just became a matter of tweaking how a technique was done until it was perfect. Henge was interesting because the dispel also released chakra smoke; thankfully, due to its E-Rank low cost, he could test it tens of times each day.

If they had Byakugan or they were an Aburame, no chance of losing them… and who knew what weird tricks other ANBU might have?

No, he couldn't detect the ANBU… even if he could, he couldn't find him/her… so the only thing left was to assume they didn't exist, rather than waste energy looking and worrying about them. He'd find out soon enough when the Hokage or the ANBU himself confronted him; until then, he had literally no way of finding out, and it would stress him an extreme amount to be watching.

The only way to get the ANBU, if any, visible, was to put himself in a position where he would die if the ANBU didn't intervene. He'd be risking his life for what could be a false positive. No, he'd be outright killing himself if his paranoia was wrong.

To be fair, he was planning to release the minions to orphanages in a few months, at which point the Hokage could find them and put two and two together – same results.

No point in worrying about what would happen if the plan failed – he wouldn't be killed or tortured because of Naruto, and the fact it was innately a _rescue_. The town would see him as a hero if it was made public. Even if Yasha had a weird reason for doing so, it was still a rescue and he was clearly taking care of them.

How ironic, the hero Itachi becomes a demon while Yasha turns from a demon to a hero, and in reality one was protecting the village and the other was just seeking power.

Well, that wasn't Yasha's main reason, to be fair, having Sharingan was _vaguely_ attractive, but he wasn't going to turn on kids he'd bought up to do it, and the swarms could resist new DNA implants anyway. He wouldn't mind having one of Shisui's eyes, but he would mind taking it from him.

Back to futons.

He reached into his pocket – he had enough cash. He had taken to carrying the entire volume of his spare cash around, because he couldn't find anywhere to hide it in the house. A good thing too, after yesterday's break-in.

If someone got into the house and remove the notes, even though there was no longer any genjutsu over them, they were clever enough to find any place he could think of. It was almost guaranteed whoever placed the notes were ninja.

Since he was immune to genjutsu and mind control, he would have to be _physically_ overpowered to be robbed, and the swarms took care of that problem: a KI pulse would scare attackers and bring any friendlier ninjas to him.

It was ironic that a simple chakra blocking seal in the right place would kill him but with focus, he could wipe out an entire roomful of people in seconds. Such a disturbing balance of weakness and strength.

Moving on. He wanted to sleep some more, but he had a feeling Naruto would wake up soon, and if Yasha were asleep Naruto wouldn't wake him, the little compassionate whelp. That left Keito alone for whoever-knew-how-long, and Yasha didn't want to risk that.

Yasha trusted Keito to keep the secret, but he didn't trust his childcare capacity. Ryūji gave him some experience with care of one toddler, but he had never had to do parental activities like…

Yasha facepalmed. He forgot about washing their clothes.

He'd have to do it at home; laundromats were too expensive and public, and even Naruto would question why they were buying a new machine when the old one worked – not to mention there was complex plumbing pipes to work with, and who knew if the kids' place even _had_ them.

Yasha had Naruto doing no parent chores whatsoever. It ate into his free time, but it gave Naruto extra dependence on him, plus he had considered it useful training for his future minions.

Future knowledge was a great asset. He knew how people thought. All the little facts about people suggested more – fire or lightning affinity meant they were more aggressive, water or wind more passive, earth they were stubborn… but Yasha was careful to just _hypothesise_ and not make any full-blown facts out of it. The first rule about analysing people was to make everything that seemed obvious as only masks about their _true_ nature, and just answering the why's would get you that.

Naruto, the loud, brash, aggressive, independent, outspoken kid, had inside a desperate longing for the exact opposite – peaceful and silent acceptance by others.

Yasha didn't see it in daytime a lot, but one night a few weeks ago, Yasha woke up at Naruto turning over, and had pretended to sleep. And Naruto had turned over and used the excuse to put an arm around him.

Even though Naruto couldn't sleep on his stomach, he had just wanted to know that one person who cared was still at his side. Yasha had stopped the sleeping act and told him plainly it was fine; he was there for him, he'd hug him whenever he wanted. That brought on a tight hug and crying.

Sometimes he wasn't sure Naruto being attached to just him was a good idea – then he remembered Naruto's old team. His sensei had been distanced due to his hidden relationship with Naruto's father Minato being his sensei, Sasuke had abandoned his team including Naruto in search of power, and Sakura had manipulated Naruto into nearly killing himself getting Sasuke back – because she had a _crush on Sasuke_.

For Naruto, one teammate was distant, one was a betrayer, and one was incredibly selfish. And the horrific thing was, Yasha wasn't sure which insult applied to which.

He was going to make very certain he was on Naruto's team, by educating Naruto well. It wasn't a guarantee, not by any means, but if the Third Hokage kept Naruto away, he would be taking steps back putting him on a team with someone else, someone unused to teaching him.

Plus, putting Yasha on another team meant subjecting two _new_ people to his manipulative abilities. Naruto had already been exposed, and it'd be idiotic to pretend Yasha hadn't taught him anything when the kid hadn't even been capable of _reading the damn syllabaries_.

And now he was capable of recognising both completely, and a good distance in kanji, after three months of hard work. Since quite a good portion of public signs had kanji with smaller hiragana beside them, so the little ones could understand what it was, helped a lot too…

* * *

"Well, see ya Naruto-kun. I'm off to babysit," Yasha called.

"See ya." Naruto waved from his slump on the sofa, his head hanging upside-down and he shot Yasha a grin.

Yasha smiled fondly at him and stepped out the front door, and the blond turned back to his book. This White Fang guy was pretty amazing, he could tell this book would have a good ending.

As he was nearing the end of the book, a rapid tapping on the door broke his concentration. He was about to yell for Yasha to come in, but realised it wouldn't be knocking if it was Yasha. Adrenaline hit him as he strode to the door, and he glanced at the large shadow (thankfully remembering the explosive notes before he stepped on them).

He spun open the door. "ANBU-san?" he asked in surprise. A black mask ANBU? He'd never seen anything like that. He'd barely seen ANBU at all, bar in the Academy textbooks. And they all had _white_ masks.

The grey armour chest plate, arm plates, shin pads, over silky dark clothing, a black/red–handled sword handle poking over his left shoulder. The mask was a featureless plain black, two weird red eyes with black dots shining through the mask's eyeholes. And the boy couldn't _feel_ anything coming from him – not even the slightest wisp of body heat or chakra. It was like he wasn't even there.

"Naruto." The ANBU cut off his awed look and the blond snapped to attentiveness at the no-nonsense tone. "If you would come with me. Yasha has been placed in hospital and I believe you would like to be with-"

Naruto stepped forward and the ninja's arm blurred, pushing him on the chest, and suddenly, despite Naruto's wild thoughts, he was frozen in place, all of his chakra locking up. He gritted his teeth angrily, straining against something invisible.

"And don't step on your own explosive notes," The ANBU added dryly, making a few hand seals and plucking the notes off the floor, much to the boy's disbelief.

He then tucked them in the blond's jumpsuit collar, before his smooth tones went on. "Yasha has only been knocked out, and he is expected to recover. So don't worry your fluffy head about it _too_ much."

The ANBU put his hand back on Naruto, pushing again, and suddenly Naruto could move again. He stumbled forward, regaining his balance, but before he managed to complete a single step towards the hospital, he was being held and then was a couple of streets away, on a roof, then further, then further… until he appeared just outside the hospital entrance. He shot the ANBU a look of gratitude and ran forward, the ANBU accompanying at a slower pace.

The hospital nurse didn't even _dare_ give him the look she normally did, with that ANBU behind him. Some part of Naruto was impressed but the vast majority of him was just concerned with seeing Yasha.

And he never managed to see him – the Third Hokage had to turn up and calm him down, reassuring him as much as he could Yasha was fine, but Naruto stayed awake the whole night, straining his ears to see if he could hear Yasha calling out in pain, or calling for him.

Nothing. Just nurses running back and forward, all looking frazzled.

Then the Hokage turned up again at about 4am, looking very tired, and Naruto felt a pang of sympathy.

"You okay Jiji?"

"I'll survive." The old man sighed, pulling out his pipe and taking a long puff on it, completely ignoring the nurses that shot him dirty looks.

Naruto decided to cheer him up. He was doing a Yasha, being all depressed even though there was light everywhere. "Of course you will Jiji! You're the Hokage, and you can't give the rank a bad name, dattebayo!"

The old man snorted, and he looked sombre. "Sometimes, you know, I feel being Hokage is not enough."

Naruto's smile faded. "I know."

The Third blinked and turned to him, noting the sad look on the usually cheerful kid with some surprise. _'He's really attached to Yasha, isn't he…'_

"Well, I'll stay awake until he wakes up!" Naruto declared brightly.

"Okay," The Third agreed, making the blond turn to him and smile again. The man felt every creak in his body – he had been all but required to oversee all of Danzō's Root being dismantled. He had sent Yūrei to bring Naruto here, that ever-dutiful man – and thankfully, Hiruzen didn't have to worry about him. Since he had turned up many years ago, he had been loyal and faithful to a fault.

It was odd he had infiltrated Root without Danzō noticing his loyalty to the Hokage, but the black mask he remained one of the four most powerful ANBU in Hiruzen's arsenal (at a rough estimate). He was certainly the best at assassination, infiltration and kenjutsu – and this cursed night's events had proven the first two.

"How did Yasha treat you so far, Naruto-kun?" he asked the boy, distracting himself.

"He's…" Words failed the blond and he was just sitting with his hands outstretched and jaw coming up and down wordlessly.

Hiruzen raised an eyebrow and the blond _exploded_. "He's the _best_ friend I could ever have! He's _always_ there for me! He sorts out all my food and my clothes and my books and he teaches me…"

"Remember, Naruto-kun," the Hokage sighed, knowing he couldn't warn him without distancing himself from the two boys' bond from appearing to not understand it. "If Yasha ever makes you upset, you can come to me."

Naruto fixed him with an incredulous expression. "He's _never_ made me upset!"

Then his gaze dropped back at the ground and he scowled. "Everyone's so mean to him just because I'm friends with him."

The Hokage frowned. Politics, such cursed things. They were what stopped him from imprisoning Danzō and taking proper care of Naruto. If only…

No, he still had to deal with Danzō being on the elder council and trying to persuade him the ends justified the means, and shinobi were just tools that had to be wielded, and how else could you use any means you wanted without soulless tools?

Homura and Koharu were aggressive in their own way. It took quite a threat before they could be roused to action; and their service in overseeing trade and other important duties could not be ignored.

But when there was an issue that the Hokage neglected to fully inform them on, or inform them first, they got the information handed to them in a twisted form by Danzō, and with all three against the Hokage's methods… it became very difficult to handle scenarios where they differed on opinion.

Well, Homura was thankfully a bit more passive-minded. He had no lust for expanding power, just protection of what Konoha already had – after all, the village was easily the most prosperous thanks to natural resources. Danzō just made the case 'without expanding to x amount, we'd be overwhelmed by other countries' strength', which was a bit flimsy.

The blond was lost in his own thoughts, scene after scene of Yasha's smiling, and those few times Yasha pranked with him, and all those times they went out for food – or when Yasha cooked….

"Yasha's a good guy, Jiji," the boy blurted out, making the Hokage jump slightly. "He tries to act all dark and scary but he hugs me every time we get home… if the villagers, you know… upset me."

The Third Hokage's eyes widened at the unreserved way Naruto just handed out private information. He couldn't imagine Yasha talking about that in _months_ of conversation. Too private, too embarrassing – it made him seem weak, made him lose control of the scenario.

But then again… Hiruzen had been putting Yasha as a disloyal worry, a second Orochimaru, a possible spy for the 'sponsor'. Seeing him endure injury and potential death against two ANBU to try rescuing kids made all those worries fall away. Orochimaru never became too close to anyone after he witnessed death – he did form bonds, but only as a farce, as poor Anko would testify to.

Orochimaru neglected to form bonds of care. Even Jiraiya and Tsunade seemed just tolerated. Unfortunately, neither of them seemed to affect his power that much. The Third had hoped his tutelage would give morals as well as the power the kids needed during the wars – but it was not to be.

Maybe the child abuse Yasha had witnessed had traumatised in a way that made him naturally inclined to protect kids and dislike all adults…? Orochimaru had looked malicious in general. Yasha just looked suspicious, he only became malicious if he was angered, and most people in T&amp;I did that.

But the bond of care Yasha formed with Naruto was all the spunky Uzumaki seemed to care about. If Yasha had ulterior motives, when the Third looked at Naruto's energetic expression … his resolve about Yasha's potential hostility became weaker and weaker.

"Yes, I suppose he is a 'good guy', in his own way," he finally admitted.

The blond shot him a wide grin. Finally, Jiji and Yasha were becoming friends.

* * *

In the bedroom, Naruto opened his eyes blearily, realising his hand was wrapped around a book. He glanced at the title, his thoughts muddled. _'Oh yeah, kanji. Yasha told me this morning… after…'_

Naruto blinked. "Yasha?" he murmured, feeling a pang of guilt. He wasn't in the bedroom.

Yasha had left him with a book to learn from and he had just fallen asleep instead. He wasn't sure if it was right to feel guilty about that, since he'd stayed up waiting for Yasha to recover. But how was it Yasha still the one acting like an adult even when he had just recovered from… whatever it was?

He hadn't even been told by Jiji. Wait, no, that black mask guy had told him – Yasha had been knocked out.

That black-mask guy was cool. Naruto was _so_ looking forward to becoming Hokage and having that guy serve him. Maybe he could find that guy later today and work out how to get him to train him? From pranking and fleeing the villagers Naruto knew Konoha like the back of his hand…

But he'd never found ANBU headquarters. His face dimmed a little as he made his way through the hallway, checking each room for Yasha-ness. ANBU were the coolest and the hardest people to find _ever_. Naruto had never found them – at home, at the Academy, out in the village – he occasionally saw glimpses of them by pure chance as they crossed roofs at light speed, and when he was younger they used to be easier to spot, confusingly enough.

Maybe when he was one year old they thought he wouldn't remember them, but in fact that was one of his earliest memories, the ones you could never really forget. The ANBU had been around then, protected him for a while – bullies would look over his shoulder mid-insult and shudder, then run away. Of course, the younger Naruto found it hilarious, and didn't realise it was actually not him they were running from – and he started confronting more people. But once the ANBU were no longer around, the bullies didn't run…

The matron helped to an extent, driving away all kids, bullies included. He became an outcast rather than a bully target, like he was carrying some sort of disease, like a 'leper' according to Yasha.

And then he spotted Yasha lying on a sofa in the living-room, looking both thoughtful and tired. He was the only escape. The only person who stuck around, through thick and thin, who protected him every day. The only real friend.

And he was too mature for his own good. Naruto was beginning to realise he had started adopting Yasha's traits – deep contemplation, recalling and predicting the way people reacted, checking his words before he said them – it was becoming an instinct.

Holding a conversation with the brunette tended to show the noticeable margin between Yasha's volume and his own, and it began to grate on Naruto. Yasha wasn't too subtle about it being too loud either, and often made comments about how he'd never met a noisy jounin, or how much of Konoha could hear him, or why double-glazing was preferred over single-glazing for noise blocking… His subtlety varied from direct to almost unrelated to the topic.

Naruto had begun to quiet down when he was around Yasha.

But he had so much energy it was very difficult to… even when his stomach was rumbling and he'd been running from the villagers most of the day, Naruto always felt energetic. It was like a bubbling fire within him, and it was only after he'd done a few Henge he realised it was his chakra.

Everyone else had small and simple levels, they could barely pull off five E-Rank techniques, but he could literally stride about in a Henge all day and he'd still be stupidly energetic.

Irritating? Yes, definitely. The Academy consisted of mostly reading and writing. Even now Naruto knew what the words _meant_, his attention would go from the work to the window to running to pranks he could be doing to daydreams and fidgeting – and then the sensei would call on him.

Even when he was out of breath, injured and tired, to the point he was unable to move, he still felt restless and full of energy. He actually found it odd he could still sleep when all that was going on.

Yasha hadn't been able to help. Naruto had asked, but Yasha said all he would do was the highest rank technique he knew or waste chakra constantly using a storage scroll to put in and take out the same object repetitively. But those scrolls cost a bunch when they were reusable, and Yasha didn't have the cash.

Yasha always got mysterious when it came to cash. All adults did. Whenever Naruto asked how much someone was paid, or how much they had in their savings, they got a weird defensive look on their face, and wouldn't say anything close to a number.

Like it mattered to a shinobi. They could surely just find extra food, kill a deer or whatever. They could live outdoors in the middle of a forest with their skills. Why would it matter if someone else was paid more?

He was doing a Yasha again, staring blankly at the room deep in thought. Ironically Yasha was directly where Naruto was looking, doing the same thing, staring blankly at the wall in contemplation.

It used to unnerve Naruto how his friend would drift off like that, but then he started doing it as well. It was apparently contagious. "Yasha!" He greeted cheerfully.

"Naruto-kun," Yasha responded neutrally.

Oops. He'd forgotten the honorific again. Yasha never commented on that when it was missing, but he had read it was more respectful to use it between male friends.

He wouldn't dare lose friendship with Yasha over forgetting that detail. Yasha paid attention to words and all…

Bounding forward, he gave Yasha a hug, distracting him from the honorific lack. "Why were you hurt yesterday?"

"Geddoff!" Yasha attempted to sound stern while squirming to get loose. Naruto held on tightly. "And I can't tell you, but the guy who knocked me out won't bother me again for quite a while."

"Ooh. You beat him up?" Naruto asked, eyes glinting.

"No, but he's not going to be around Konoha," Yasha replied with a smile, his squirming suspended.

"That's good." Naruto grinned back. Good enough for him. Then his grin faded. "I don't like seeing you hurt, dattebayo."

Yasha rolled his eyes. "You might be in the wrong kind of work if you don't like seeing injuries, kiddo."

"Don't call me kiddo. You're barely older than me." Naruto scowled.

"Barely older? In maturity I'm _years_ ahead!"

Naruto blew a raspberry. "Lot of good _that's_ gotten you."

"Look who's talking, Mr. I-Prank-Shinobi-To-Prove-Maturity."

"Just because _you_ can't prank shinobi without getting caught…"

"That's my bloodline's fault," Yasha protested.

"You wear dark colours and I wear bright orange! It evens out."

Yasha frowned at his expression. "I smell a prank challenge…"

"You bet." Naruto grinned. "Give me a prank to do and if I can do it and get away, I give _you_ a prank."

"All right. You're on." Yasha looked contemplative for a while.

Naruto's confident smile faded a little when a scary glint appeared in his friend's eye.

* * *

Orochimaru scowled at the paperwork – and the lack of details in them. True to his codename, Yūrei was a ghost.

He had appeared in Konoha a few weeks prior to the end of the Second World War, was taken to see the Third Hokage at his request, and suddenly granted full trust and access to ANBU ranks in the same day. Not only that, Yūrei was granted training with the best men ANBU had, and despite his newbie status, was provided more than adequate at handling himself; not completely a genius, but over the course of a year, he became one of the top ANBU.

Reports on missions stopped short of outright praising him, but he was often the entire reason the mission went smoothly. You could write a book about how he appeared at the last minute, how his smarts took care of problems before they happened… he had apparently even stopped Operative Bird from taking a mission due to a 'gut feeling' and the operative was diagnosed with a nasty lung disease; it was nearing the end of the period that it could be treated.

Itachi left with a degenerative lung disease was something Orochimaru had mixed feelings about. He didn't want a diseased body either, but a stronger body meant it was just that much harder to steal. Now Itachi was running loose as a missing-nin, he was open for attacking.

Orochimaru was still curious about the doujutsu that Pein had, but it wasn't Sharingan. With Mangekyō-wielding Itachi, maybe he could talk Pein into recruiting him, as a partner.

Back to Yūrei, Operative Hound was a regular team member with him on missions – Yūrei tended to request him, and also favoured working with Bird or Hare for missions – but all four had Sharingan, so they tended to be split up despite his requests.

However, Hatake tended to spend most of his missions with Yūrei, particularly at the start of his ANBU duty. The Hokages didn't want him dead because Minato had his eye on him, _quelle surprise_, and of _course_ both active Hokages had complete trust in Yūrei, hence Hound and Yūrei were often paired.

Kakashi mostly went for solos, but if there was someone who Kakashi had as an ANBU partner, it was Yūrei; the man was practically famous for ignoring rumours and judging only for himself, so with the 'friend-killer' nickname going around…

Yūrei had apparently been instrumental in delaying an Uchiha coup – records of that were buried _deep_ in Root's records. It had cost Yūrei his place in the Uchiha clan, that much was known; he had previously been held in high regard by the Uchiha elders, perhaps the most highly thought of operative, although civilian circles didn't know him well.

But what was mind-numbing was Yūrei not only wielded powerful genjutsu, but he was skilled enough for ANBU, yet _no one_ had noticed?

The elder council, the Hokage, and Orochimaru suspected any ANBU he interacted with, all trusted him far more than people with their rank normally would.

There was no one left to question him. No one outside of those groups even knew who was in ANBU, so no one questioned.

But there were not even any records of his birth, how he acquired Sharingan… the earliest report was from Lion, noting a person's entry into the Hokage's office, clearing the room; someone who wore seals and masked their presence.

And the next ANBU mission report was a week later, with Yūrei on the participant list.

And because Danzō also trusted him, the man eventually invited him to Root – was accepted and thus Danzō was regularly in the midst of a genjutsu prodigy.

Danzō and the active Hokages, both reported to regularly, and thus both under Yūrei's control.

Idiots.

He wasn't fond of Konoha, but this was so _pathetic_, it made him twitch with suppressed emotions. Orochimaru felt like returning to that Kami-forsaken backwater village just so he could scream at Konoha to stop being so damn oblivious, to open their damn eyes and pay more attention. They were making him look bad.

He expected the Third to get soft, grow complacent – but Danzō as well? _Both_ gone senile?

Not a _single_ ANBU noticed they suddenly trusted someone an obscene amount?

Not even Root, the emotionless tools, noticed that Yūrei affected them emotionally? (Or did he just not apply it to them? Maybe he knew better.)

But even the Fourth – Orochimaru refused to recount his title – during his thankfully short period of reign hadn't noticed? That blond was an airhead, and naïve, apparently just like his son, but he couldn't be blamed for senility, perhaps just outright stupidity then.

Either way, Konoha's leadership seemed to not be with the Hokage, the elder council, or even Danzō. It was under Yūrei's control; who knew how much things had been affected by him.

And that Uchiha Yūrei had let his clan be massacred… why? And he carried out the act himself. Did he hate his own clan?

Was it even his own clan? The records showed he kept Sharingan active constantly, and said he said he was an Uchiha, but no one had thought to _check_ his DNA?! Not even Danzō?!

Orochimaru felt like bashing his head against something. Really, there was senility, there was getting played, then there was _this_ crap pile. Yūrei was either a genius, lucky, or everyone there were completely inattentive idiots.

"Kabuto," he hissed, the undertones of tone making his right-hand man squirm nervously, "I want you to raise suspicion about Yūrei. Have his origins tested."

"I'm afraid that won't work, Orochimaru-sama," the man replied rather hesitantly, quickly explaining, "He's done nothing but apparent loyalty the entire period anyone's known him. It'd be near impossible to raise suspicion with that sort of general trust."

Most power-obsessed people would have cut Kabuto's head in two for insubordination right there. But Orochimaru knew that Kabuto was clever, and the Sannin knew he had been struck by the genjutsu as well – how else would he have forgotten about Yūrei?

Kabuto's thoughts about Yūrei's trustworthiness were manipulated the same way as the rest of them – and that meant, whatever Kabuto thought was true about Yūrei, everyone else would think too.

If Kabuto's genjutsu made him think he couldn't doubt Yūrei, everyone else's would too. Getting angry because the genjutsu made Kabuto a certain way would be ignoring the fact Kabuto was exposing _exactly_ how it worked.

Using genjutsu to get people to completely trust you, yet not think of you when they thought of any sort of category. It was a very good tactic. Even if you acted oddly or suspicion was raised, it would hold up for quite a while. In this case, Yūrei had made himself unquestionable.

_'Unquestionable to Kabuto, maybe.'_ The Snake Sannin's eyes trailed over the silver-haired boy._ 'But Hiruzen is a higher calibre than him, even if he is an old man and __**apparently**__ senile. Maybe I'll get to him through someone else, someone who would press the issue.'_

And there were still people Yūrei hadn't encountered yet, or were much harder to trick. A thin smile grew as he worked out how to throw a wrench in Yūrei's plotting.

"Kabuto, I'm prepare a letter of warning about Yūrei, anonymous, to be delivered to Ibiki, Inoichi, and Shikaku, in that order and only if the last warning attempt failed. I want him interrogated so I get reports on him – his origin, his DNA, how his genjutsu works – anything you can raise. I'll mention the Hokage's brainwashing and inability to doubt about him – you just need to deliver it, and you would be wise not to get caught doing so."

It wasn't going to be fun to destroy Konoha and his sensei's legacy if it wasn't even his sensei in control of it.

The silver-haired jounin nodded, suppressing the instinctual response of 'questioning Yūrei won't work'. "Hai."

"This will make an interesting game." Orochimaru grinned.

* * *

"…The Third Shinobi War then ended after Iwa and Kumo sustained heavy losses, mostly thanks to the soon-to-be Fourth Hokage, otherwise known as the Yellow Flash."

Iruka looked up to call on the troublemakers, and he frowned at the lack thereof. They'd snuck away. The Hokage had dropped a note Yasha was taking a day off sick, and Iruka had expected Naruto to care for him (assuming it _was_ sickness Yasha had), but then Shikamaru, Chouji, and Kiba had vanished as well.

Break was in fifteen minutes, he'd have to hunt those three down soon, but if he left now, he'd cut off the part he was teaching. Knowing Shikamaru, he had timed that on purpose, so to him it was just like a longer break.

And of course Uchiha Sasuke was absent. Rumour had it he had _seen_ his clan massacre – absence was expected for most of the rest of the month. Iruka cringed at the thought of what seeing his clan dead or dying would do to him. He was only twelve, near-genin or not.

Sasuke's grades were excellent in every field, so a month of absence, even just before graduation, was hardly going to affect his grade. If he was mentally fit enough to take the graduation exam, he'd pass. Otherwise, once he recovered, he'd probably be given an exception to take the test early. The only worry was how mentally fit he was for duty, but Iruka left that decision to the Hokage.

When the bell rang a few minutes later, the class emptied in half a minute.

The chuunin collected the completed worksheets off the desks, giving them quick once-overs, making sure the questions were attempted. Ino had forgotten to put her name, so he filled it in quickly with a sigh, but thankfully all of the students had filled in the sheets, bar the absentees, who barely attempted it.

Well, time to make some fresh coffee and begin the student hunt.

* * *

Yūrei watched Yasha stride off, the boy glancing around but not spotting him, then the ANBU dropped down by the house and inspected the toddlers through the dirty window, wincing. His right Sharingan was blind again. He had gotten used to keeping an eye closed, since all of his training involved keeping one shut and compensating for decreased field of view, but that didn't get rid of pain.

Not that observers would notice. On his mask's eye 'holes' were images of active Sharingan, although they were actually small visual seals powered by a constant stream of chakra. No one would sneak up on his blinded side, because it didn't look like he had one.

And someone noticing a genjutsu while looking at a Sharingan eye would hardly deem it strange. Since the seal required a constant stream of chakra right alongside his body's chakra system, the genjutsu couldn't be broken, since the next use of chakra would restore the flow, but unfortunately meant he couldn't shut his eyes to regain chakra, since he was obligated to power the seals up.

Still, his eye had convinced Danzō he was well and truly beaten by Itachi – the man had been spitting fire after Itachi had used Tsukuyomi on his genocidal ass.

Yūrei didn't regret healing Itachi after that Mangekyō use, either, even though it had brought his chakra levels down to critically low, almost too low to get back into his home through all his fuuinjutsu and trap security layers… after which he had spent a good five minutes laughing his butt off about Danzō's expression.

His home was the only place he relaxed. Fifteen layers all coded to blood, various responding seals on his body, his chakra signature, and a few changing passcodes. It had taken the better part of two years to design some of them, but each addition made him feel safer.

He was confident Jiraiya and the Hokage together couldn't break through these without taking at _least_ a solid week. And brute forcing their way would be impossible; seals sucked the chakra out of your body and threw it back at you with fire nature, wind nature, some plain explosive… you'd need several Bijū to get near.

If Yūrei was in there he'd have to be deaf and lost most of the sensation in his body to not react to his seals being breached – some were set to buzz his limbs if it was breached, and the audible explosions and alerts would wake the dead.

_'Hmm… maybe I could tie Edo Tensei into the seals…' _

His thoughts suspended instantly when he felt one of the toddlers look at the window, and he vanished instantly. Thankfully she glanced away almost straight off. The timid one, what was her name… Naoki.

He was shocked Yasha had pulled it off, saving kids in the middle of three ANBU-level on a kill-all-on-sight mission. Yūrei had deliberately taken the civilian section and gotten rid of the guards so Yasha could run amok, but he stopped short of actually stopping civilians interfering, and of course hadn't notified Itachi or 'Madara' that Yasha was running around.

Then he covered up Yasha's trails to his safe house as payment for the show, although with the confusion and ANBU pouring in and out of the compound, it was just extra precaution, no one would have the time to track his scent. Yasha had taken a lot of precautions but he still would've been spotted – Yūrei was just giving him that extra few inches.

Seven kids saved, all have no visible Sharingan, ranging from ages of three weeks to eight years.

When they reached age three, they can be considered capable of simple sentences, walking, and very basic manipulation of chakra. Only the geniuses will fully grasp the death of their parents before the age of five, albeit they may understand it is sad and irreversible earlier; many will even forget their parents.

Keito Uchiha (8y), male, capable of Henge and basic chakra manipulation. Brother of Takeshi. Seems to have the Uchiha pride problem, but Yasha and the child caring would put an end to that.

Takeshi Uchiha (2y, 8m). Male. Brother of Keito. No chakra usage spotted, seems to respond to Keito.

Michiko Uchiha (3y, 4m). Female. Mostly friends with Naoki.

Naoki Uchiha (3y, 2m). Female. Docile, forward-thinking, quiet and clever. If there was a prodigy, it was her – she was first to cut to the thick of the moving out issue, that she had not seen her parents yet Yasha had told all the kids they had told them to stay with him.

Ryūji Uchiha (2y, 5m). Male. No notable comments.

Tsuyoshi Uchiha (5m). Male. Naturally incapable of speech, but makes up for it with plain noise.

Etsuko Uchiha (3w). Female. Naturally incapable of speech. Very quiet, and narrowly escaped death. If Yasha had applied the lowest strength he had, it would have fried half her brain cells, causing brain asphyxia, fitting and death. Thankfully Yūrei had managed to swap them the night before a much lower hand-written seal – even _that_ was approximate.

If Yūrei hadn't assisted at all… Etsuko and Tsuyoshi would be dead, and most of the two/three-year-olds would be brain damaged. Keito would have been the only survivor, unless Yasha worked out they had actually died – in which case he wouldn't be able to keep them quiet. The gig would be up, he'd have dead or severely brain damaged Uchiha in random house… yeah, the aftermath wouldn't be pretty.

Speaking of which, he had to go check on where Yasha had gone. _'Power up that seal… make hand seal… and now, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!'_

* * *

"Yasha…" Iruka began, frustratedly rubbing his face, then just sighed. He had found him with Naruto, Shikamaru, Kiba and Chouji – all the absentees together and herded them back to class. Clearly Yasha wasn't as sick as the Hokage thought.

The boy in question was covered in multiple-coloured flecks of dry paint – the brunette gave him a wide grin, sending a good portion of the females in the class to blushing.

Naruto matched his grin, wearing equal amounts of paint. Only one female responded to him.

"You haven't defaced the Hokage monument again, have you?"

"No, it was definitely Kiba," Yasha reassured him.

"Oi! Don't blame me!" Kiba yelled from the back, half-grinning.

"Shut up, Kiba. It's obvious you framed us again."

"Sit down, Kiba," Iruka ordered, then turned to Yasha and asked him outright. "Why did you let Naruto talk you into that?"

"He lost a bet," Naruto told him with a proud grin.

Yasha was, as usual, unapologetic and diverting attention from the problem. "He rigs his chances with insane luck. I blame fate."

A couple of miles away, Neji blinked. For a moment there he thought someone was talking about him. Then he quickly refocused on his two opponents, narrowly dodging a flurry of Tenten's kunai.

"Then, there was the fact the Hokage's monument is totally mono-coloured. It's about as aesthetically interesting as a rock. I did my duty as a member of Konoha to assist the brightening up of the monument."

"Mono-coloured…?" Iruka repeated faintly.

"Precisely. Kiba has a white dog and brown hair, so he works. Shino has sunglasses and light clothes, so that works too."

"I thought it was because Jiji had you questioned again," Naruto whispered, but everyone several seats around could still hear him. Shino frowned slightly at that.

Yasha gave him a 'shut up' glare, carrying on like he hadn't heard him. "Hey, Jiji may be the Professor, but his ninjas are just slow."

"Slow?" Iruka repeated, the anger building slowly.

Naruto grinned. "Yeah. I totally bombed Jiji's ANBU guard with a stink bomb."

"And I bet he couldn't do that," Yasha added with a sigh, "but apparently the ANBU prefer taking a stink bomb than letting the Hokage take one."

"I just threw it through the window, and they thought it was going to blow up or something."

"Never understood why the Hokage's tower have such big windows, it's like target practice to anyone with long-range techniques," Yasha interjected.

"It didn't blow up, not in the way they expected anyway!" Naruto ended with a fist pump, completely oblivious to Iruka's expression.

"Anyway, Iruka-sensei, I have to go soon, but you can keep this blond knucklehead here."

"You're not going anywh-" Iruka began, but Yasha had already dived out the window, quickly employing a weight-reducing Henge to vanish.

"Oi Yasha! Don't abandon me, dattebayo!" Naruto yelped, running to the window, when Iruka's firm hand clasped on his shoulder. He turned slowly, smiling his best disarming grin. "Eh heh… Iruka-sensei…"

"Get in your seat, Naruto. Now," Iruka ordered, his other hand on his forehead. He could feel a headache appearing.

Naruto's smile dropped and he hastily took his seat.

* * *

"Kurenai-san!" Yasha called, at her side in a few seconds.

"Oh, Yasha-kun," the red-eyed jounin greeted, wondering where he got his speed from.

"Teach me something for knocking someone out quickly, Kurenai-san, please!" Yasha tried his best winning smile.

"What? Why?" The jounin asked in bewilderment.

The pre-genin gave her a blank look. "So I don't have to kill everyone I can make hand contact with?"

Kurenai cuffed him around the head lightly, and he held it with a scowl. "Okay, yes, I know of one I can teach you, but what brought this on?"

"You heard about the incident yesterday?"

Kurenai's expression darkened. "…Yes?"

"I was in the middle of that," Yasha half-explained, ignoring her expression. "It gave me time to think about my combat style, and first thing I need, is a quick finishing move that won't kill or maim people."

"_How_ were you involved in that?" she asked in shock.

He shook his head. "Sorry, the Hokage swore me into secrecy. S-Rank and all that."

"You met Itachi himself?" Kurenai stated in a disbelieving tone.

Yasha blinked, genuinely taken aback for once. She worked out all that from the rank alone? That was a significant intelligence there, he'd have to watch out for her. "Maybe. And maybe he knocked me out in a few seconds. But I'm not allowed to talk about it."

"I see…" the jounin murmured absently.

Yasha waited for a few seconds, but she didn't respond, probably thinking too much. "So, technique?" he prompted eagerly.

She blinked. "Yes, yes." She had a bit of time spare, after all, and it would be interesting to see how much he had progressed.

Kurenai started striding to the nearest training ground, and Yasha trotted behind her, smiling triumphantly.

* * *

Shikaku frowned. Something didn't add up about the Uchiha massacre. Yasha had not even been mentioned.

It was on Shikaku that he had estimated the date wrong. But estimates could only go so far. Yasha, deliberately or not, had used language implying the coup attempt was much earlier than he actually expected. This had forced Hiruzen into taking drastic measures early, but several circumstances didn't add up.

Shisui died during a mission to Takigakure, which the Hokage had explained the purpose of to Shikaku. The mission of itself was quite a good idea – risky to the point of causing war on failure, but being barely no one knew about it while it was taking place bar the Hokage and those on it, that left only the possibility of a traitor. Being only one man came back from the mission alive, that made the possible traitor only one person – for reasons unknown.

Unfortunately it was not within Shikaku's jurisdiction to investigate ANBU matters. That was only handled by the Kage, other ANBU, and on some rare occasions the elder council. Shikaku knew digging around for Yūrei's files were pointless, since he was one of those full body concealment types – a master of fuuinjutsu and using it to conceal himself as well – even trying to dig up genin photos was pointless. You might as well pick someone at random.

But he had Sharingan.

Of course, a genjutsu-casting doujutsu raised alarm bells when Shisui mysteriously died. Shikaku had made his case for suspicion against Operative Yūrei, but Hiruzen was adamant that he was trustworthy. A perfect mission record was hard to achieve, especially in ANBU, and the Nara could respect that.

But he couldn't shake the feeling that Yūrei needed more than a debriefing… an outright Yamanaka trip was needed. These were matters of national security, the Takigakure mission could cause a war, and the Uchiha coup a civil war – but Yamanaka could seal memories, and besides, Shikaku could trust Inoichi far more than an ANBU stranger.

He may have been more experienced and more professional than Shisui, but ANBU death was careless. And come to think of it, why had he managed to seal Shisui's body? Why didn't he destroy it as per common ANBU practice?

It didn't add up. Yasha's lack of appearance in yesterday's meeting meant the Hokage didn't want to tell anyone about him either; not even after the meeting had he fed a mention about him to Shikaku, and there was no way it slipped the Kage's mind. Hell, Yasha was probably the only thing on his mind being he was directly involved with the Uchiha mess. So Yasha had done more than just sit out the massacre, but what?

Finally, Itachi _alone_ assassinating the whole clan? Ignoring Yūrei, the only Uchiha ANBU left bar Itachi, that was quite an achievement – there were plenty of jounin around, and it required that poor boy to kill his emotions with every familiar face.

It was definitely Itachi involved, though; he was marked missing-nin publicly and Sasuke was left in a genjutsu-induced trauma. Shikaku wondered what good Itachi had planned from _trauma_. Revenge?

Just another dark secret shoved under the rug.

But Yūrei needed questioning. Shikaku made plans to visit Inoichi later to see what he had heard of him.

* * *

"So, to knock someone out, it's like that?" Yasha made the seals deftly.

Kurenai nodded. "This is technically a D-Rank, since it requires hand contact on a limited area, and emitting chakra when touched will cancel the effect, which are two big weaknesses. Once mastered, the knockout occurs in under half a second, and can be cut from five hand seals to one."

"How do you do it?" the brunette pressed curiously. "Does anywhere on the head work?"

She nodded again. "Once you become more experienced, yes, you can wrap the chakra around the skull before it interacts with the brain, but it's still the head that must be targeted, other parts of the nervous system are inadequate." She put her palm on her forehead to demonstrate. "The area you want to infiltrate is located in the front of the skull, just channel chakra into the forehead, and pushing the brain's chakra forward, upward and to the right." She pointed with her finger across her head.

Yasha frowned, memorising the information. "Does this technique have a name?"

Kurenai shrugged. "I'd imagine it's called Knockout Jutsu. This one doesn't tend to be named, because if you're knocking out multiple people, you'd alert the rest."

"Right." Yasha coughed embarrassedly, quickly moving on. "Are people with higher chakra levels less prone to it?"

"No. Technically the motion forcibly induces deep sleep, as if from a large impact. Since anyone can suffer shock, even the strongest person, it remains just as effective. However, channelling too little chakra will just lessen the time until the person wakes. Of course, because it's genjutsu, too much brain pressure and there would be a coma, possible cranial haemorrhaging, loss of all ability to sleep, etc. Because it's direct hand contact on the brain, the chakra system can more easily be overloaded and damaged, than the typical remote genjutsu."

"Right…" Yasha mused. _'If I use that on the Uchiha kids, I'd have to be pretty careful to keep it ultra-low-powered. Best not even risk it with Etsuko.'_

He gave the jounin an pleasant smile. "How do I practise it to get the dosage right?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not particularly willing to be your test dummy, but I would estimate it as roughly a quarter of what you put into Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu. That will knock out most people for eight hours."

"What if I want to make them sleep but not forcibly? Like downing a sleep pill?"

"Same." She said with a shrug. "Just apply less chakra but with as much momentum; lower it until the target just feels drowsy. It won't _hurt_, even if you completely over-do it and there's serious internal damage, because the brain has no nerves – so you'll have to rely on how they respond. Slightly too much chakra will lead to the person waking up with a headache. Too little past the 'feeling sleepy' stage and they'll just fall asleep and can wake back up in seconds, in the normal conditions that wake them up will do so. Obviously, if someone's a high-strung sleeper…" she trailed off, letting him work it out.

"Hai, I get it," Yasha mused thoughtfully.

"Use the absolute minimal chakra on my shadow clone," Kurenai instructed, making a familiar cross seal. "If you make it drowsy, that's a pass. Of course, knocking it out will dispel it – putting it to sleep won't."

Yasha did as instructed, making the seals, putting his hand on the kneeling clone's forehead, channelling the chakra in, binding it to the brain, and pushing it.

The clone blinked, resisting the engrained instinct to push out the chakra entry. "That's…" she yawned. "_Excellent_. Just the right level, and direction is on point as well. You've been working on your control, Yasha, congratulations."

Yasha grinned widely. All that chakra control and constant refinement had paid off. "If I want to spar with it, how do you recommend I dumb it down for a genin?"

"Your current level, what you just used on me, is fine," the clone responded. "It will have say, two times more effect on the average preteen if you want to put them to a mild sleep."

"Can it be used for insomniacs?"

The Kurenai clone frowned. "I wouldn't recommend it."

She dispelled and Yasha turned back to the real Kurenai, who was sporting an identical frown. "It's based on applying force to the cells to induce a recovery state. Although it can just cause drowsiness, and there's no pain caused – that's because there is no pain receptors on the brain to sense it, it's still a knockout technique, and I can't imagine knockouts are healthy for everyday use."

"Right." Yasha acknowledged the point. Not to be used every day, except maybe on himself and Naruto, since both regenerated easily.

_'Does my __**brain**__ regenerate, though? …Probably. The swarms seem capable of rebuilding entire flesh structures, such as my hand and its nervous system, so my brain should be included. Weird, my brain is thinking about itself. How does it do that? Surely that'd create a recursive loop somewhere in the circuits. Now it's thinking about thinking about itself… um…'_

Kurenai coughed lightly, thankfully interrupting his thoughts. "Bear in mind ejecting chakra around that area of the brain will cancel it, so even if you sneak up on a higher-level ninja, the genjutsu would probably be resisted by instinct, due to their training – and most higher-level ninja are alert enough to detect someone too close anyway. You might as well just knock them out the traditional way."

"Bosh." Yasha imitated a good spinning punch, and the two shared a grin.

"'Bosh' indeed." Kurenai nodded, spotting Asuma in the distance. "I'd recommend practise, but it'd tire me out if you keep making my clones tired, and I have somewhere to be now. You seem to have it mastered for the most part, but we can work on it tomorrow evening. Be in this training ground after Academy ends."

"Roger that." Yasha saluted and strode off, giving Asuma a suggestive wink as he passed, who rolled his eyes and nodded back in greeting.

"The scene is set," Yasha muttered to himself, a smirk growing on his face. His smirk faltered as he remembered talking out loud was a bad habit in a ninja community. Hell, thinking would be too, if he didn't have his bloodline. _'With this I can knock out Naruto when he steals the scroll, and get Kage Bunshin memorised after he does and before he wakes up. And the genjutsu is another trump card if I spar or need to sneak up on a genin. Plus, tie knockout genjutsu with the swarms' remote control, and who knows how powerful that'll make me.'_

He passed some nattering six-year-olds and carried on towards home_. 'I still need to work on my swarm controlling, though. I can't seem to manipulate them remotely, the best I can do is with a good chakra string and chakra flare while they attack, and if I ever want to be hidden, that'll need reduction. It's odd, they're telepathic, and they're happy to reconstruct my body, but they're also happy to destroy it… I'm not following their logic.'_

He had pondered over it many times, and did so again. _'My chakra flare stops them attacking me, but moulding new chakra draws them in. If it draws them in, my chakra can't be a barrier to them, since I don't release it far enough. If my chakra was sticky, and stuck them to it, when I release them during expelling chakra, if they didn't like the stickiness, they'd attack me first chance they got. And true, they have attacked before… but that explanation makes the regeneration not make any sense, much less the fact that they get rid of poisons. They want to keep me alive, but they want to eat meat even more._

_'And what's with the telepathy? I need a line of sight with the target, so it's possible a chakra string of __**some**__ sort is created, but the minor chakra usage with the weak connection is odd – the most basic of Yamanaka techniques need more chakra than what I use. I'm slightly over genin and I could probably keep up a weak connection for hours on an unmoving target._

_'And when it's a strong connection, my entire consciousness shifts, so no chakra string there. At least that makes sense. I'm guessing the latter technique is a bit unusual. I would have a Yamanaka analyse it…'_ Yasha glanced idly to his left as he passed the Yamanaka flower shop, _'but the swarms would stop analysis of the technique. So no point.'_

Kurenai was a useful woman, though. Talented in genjutsu, definitely – her intelligence was higher than he had anticipated as well. He wasn't inclined to think females were stupid, much less jounin, but it had just surprised him. But if she worked with brain functions and genjutsu regularly, she probably would have quite the smarts.

He'd have to get as much training as he can out of her. Unfortunately, he wouldn't have Shadow Clone at least until graduation – and that was when Kurenai would stop teaching him. That just left the time he had each evening, after caring for the Uchiha brats and Naruto most of the day. He had to squeeze as much genjutsu training as he could out of her; she wouldn't be so receptive later, even if he somehow used Asuma as motivation.

Speaking of which, he had probably best get back to them…

* * *

Jiraiya gulped down the shot of sake with a cough. "Hey, Nanami, you ever hear of someone named Zack?"

The blond girl coughed, scrubbing the shot glasses furiously. "That I have not."

"Anything about something called Death Release?"

"It's a cursed bloodline, you know," she drawled, switching to another glass while looking around the bar behind her dirty bangs. "It's risky to talk about it."

Jiraiya didn't bother rolling his eyes, he just flicked a five-thousand-ryou note at her. Expensive rates, but this spy was worth it.

She faced him, eyes still darting around, but he took a moment to marvel at her jawline. Not many women could achieve the balance of rigidness and femininity, but in Mizu, you couldn't afford to have too much female charm.

She spoke in hushed tones. "I hear there's a boy who has a technique called that in Konoha. If that's the case, tragedy's gonna fall on that place."

"How do you mean?" he asked, filling another shot glass. She didn't give him information on his own village he already knew.

She slapped a newspaper in front of him, his eyes scanned the headline and he spat the sake across the bar. _'The Uchiha have been __**WHAT?!**__'_

"And a tragedy has befallen that village," she finished with a smirk.

"And I have found a part of a journal, written by a man named Jiraiya, left from the front lines during the Second World War. He speaks of having to escort someone… someone who wiped out a thousand of Konoha's forces in an _instant_… and that man is escorting them to Konohagakure itself…"

* * *

**AN:** I asked you folks last chapter if you want to ask any characters questions.

Illuminated: "Hey Jiraiya, have you ever heard of this Yūrei?"  
Jiraiya looks blank. "Who? And address me as Jiraiya-_sama_, gaki."

Offer's still ongoing, btw. Ask your questions!

The subplots develop! The following chapters may be a mix of Yasha caring for 'the brats', and just the subplots developed further. Yūrei's interfering with such public affairs appear to have raised attention, from people he hasn't 'inclined' to like him.

Yūrei was interested in how far Yasha could go by himself, but apparently didn't want to let him mess it up at the expense of the kids' mental health.

And you can see Yūrei's techniques come at a cost. He can't just throw powerful genjutsu around all day, and he almost ran out of chakra before he got home on the Uchiha massacre. His chakra-hiding clothing seals use chakra, paradoxically – the only way he can really recuperate is at home, so he locks that up tightly. Tight enough that if the entire population of Konoha decided to break in, they wouldn't make it.


	26. Double-crossing

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 26: Double-crossing_**

* * *

**AN:** This be extra-long 15k chapter after you guys had to wait three weeks for it. Reason is a bit of a spoiler, so it's at the bottom. Also, I hit 100 follows and 100 reviews.

I'd probably get more if I posted shorter chapters more often; the fic's not hitting the Most Recently Updated list a lot.

Congrats to goodbye177 for 100th follow. And congrats JoshPE for creating the 100th review (technically 101th, but I deleted one that was ridiculously filled with innuendos…)

Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

"I did _what?!"_

"You escorted someone _very_ dangerous to Konoha. _Who_, I think, is worth three hundred thousand ryou," was all the girl replied, waving a paper with what looked like Jiraiya's handwriting on it. It was covered in dirt and looked like a notepad that had been discarded a while back. She gave a rare lop-sided grin, although it could have been a smirk.

Three hundred thousand was enough to rent a four-bedroom apartment in the middle of Konoha and live comfortably for a year. Jiraiya could have just plucked the note out of her hand, but that would mean the end of their informant relationship; and she was a ninja, she would have known better than to be without protection against that.

He frowned, using his immense chakra control to squash as much of the sake's effects as possible. The Toad Sannin needed to think clearly.

All appearances of the book matched up, and this woman was not stupid enough to be lied to, or to lie to him, for that matter. She was a Mizu jounin missing-nin, hiding in her homeland of the Land of Water itself; not many could pull that off, and far fewer would _want_ to. Her secret to staying hidden was to remain informed of shinobi movements; and when Jiraiya had found her, he immediately enlisted her help, the substantial bounty on her head ignored.

Come to think of it, three hundred thousand was more than her bounty was.

She didn't tell him even a _tenth_ of what she heard about Mizu, but what she did tell was worth the cash and the sneaking through the five miles past the border into the Land of Water. She wasn't bad with getting information from other countries as well, especially considering Mizu was separated by several miles of ocean and the nearest island was the poverty-stricken Land of Waves or the decimated islands of Whirlpools; not an easy place to get information through, yet she had today's local Konoha newspaper in her hand.

Still, three hundred thousand was ridiculous. "Sorry, I'm all tapped out of ridiculous payments. Even if it was the First Raikage. One hundred."

"Two hundred fifty," she countered swiftly.

"One hundred fifty."

"Two hundred, or you don't see it at all."

She was pushing it, but that meant it was the real deal. He sighed. "Fine." He caught the slightest twitch of a smile on her face. She had _meant_ to get that amount, the snarky bitch.

If only she gave away her body as easily… but Jiraiya couldn't even sneak a look without a genjutsu or a torrent of water or a glass beer mug or a cat hitting him in the face. Yeah, the cat had happened once. It took two days for the scratches from that cursed feline to heal.

The paper in her hand dissolved it into a puddle of water, neatly filling a cup she was holding with her other hand. Jiraiya rolled his eyes at the dramatic ninjutsu and anti-theft preparation display and forked over the money, making a mental note to report to the nearest bank and to speed up the release of his next Icha Icha. His wallet was getting unusually empty.

She took a notepad from under the counter and gave it to him. One part of it looked like a Fire jutsu had got the better of it and quite a lot of the rest of it was muddy.

Jiraiya didn't comment on that.

"Page 51 for the good stuff." She grinned, the money mysteriously vanishing as she leant forward on the desk, both fists under her chin, looking expectant. Jiraiya easily deduced she wanted the full view of his reaction. The suspense was killing Jiraiya, and he turned as quickly as he could to the page she indicated.

_'23rd October: Orochimaru's holding the Kumo line well. Lots of casualties on the west front, but Orochimaru's brutality, while I don't like it, is reducing the enemy morale nicely. I think he lets a few enemies report back on that on purpose. It'd be just like him.'_

Hmm. He didn't remember writing that. Ever. But it was in his handwriting, and Orochimaru was on the west flank for most of the time Kumo was a threat.

_'Minato is doing well holding Iwa off on the north-west. Low morale amongst the Iwa troops thanks to Minato, the little gaki. Hiruzen-sensei's still at Konoha with the Nara clan and their strategizing. On my side, Mizu and Kumo seem to be spending most of their energy fighting each other. Kumo's winning in strategies, but Mizu are such a messed-up bunch, you don't even want to take prisoners. They're just too uncontrolled. Kumo don't like penetrating their territory too deeply, in case it's a trap or another shinobi goes nuts on them. Even the civilians are nutcases there.'_

He frowned. 23rd of October wasn't too interesting. He was on the Mizu front then, in the south-east, keeping watch, but there was only skirmishes happening then from his memory. He turned the page.

_'Hold the phone, ladies. I'm pulled off the Mizu line and put on the Iwa front by Minato. Konoha's forces had just died – two hundred men reportedly dead in an __instant__. Civilians, shinobi, all ranks, medics included, murdered in a flash. Apparently Kakashi has just met with the person who caused it. I'm going with a Hiraishin-gathered meeting on the Iwa front – Orochy's ugly face, the Third and Minato, along with Kakashi, once the Third gets here I'll write up again.'_

Jiraiya's eyes widened, ignoring the informant's small gleeful smile. That _never_ happened. Hundreds died during the wars, yes, but not like this. The writing paused, a line drawn across the page, then another entry, written hurriedly.

_'You won't believe this, ladies: it's the __Shinigami himself__. He's not only __real__, he's working for Iwa. He had a contract with them, killed two hundred of Konoha's ninja. He's killed them. I don't know what to say about that –Minato's front against Iwa suffered severe losses, but Iwa isn't capitalising on it. Maybe the contract doesn't let them? Anyway, according to Kakashi, the Shinigami is heading to Konoha, but we don't know the route or where he is now. I'm putting the word out and hopping between my informants. Orochimaru's covering the Iwa front now. Wish me luck, ladies.'_

Another break in the entries, and Jiraiya was painfully aware this was _his handwriting_ but he _never wrote it_. He turned the page hurriedly.

_'Just been to a village, an informant sent a message the Shinigami passed through – but when we got there, she had completely forgotten ever sending it. She acknowledges it's her own handwriting, but doesn't remember writing it… if the Shinigami's been here, the rumour about him knowing everyone by name is not only true, but he can make them forget him as well. There's a hotel with someone signed in under an indecipherable scribble for a name, but the owner doesn't remember the person signing it even though he was on duty.'_

Jiraiya froze. The Shinigami… with the ability to wipe memories. _That_ explained why the rumours were so popular and the fear of him was ridiculously widespread yet nothing concrete was ever found of him. He was unable to read on for good few seconds while his mind reeled from the idea.

_'Anyway, he's come and gone. If the Shinigami is heading to Konoha, he's probably going directly, so we're taking the fastest route there in an effort to track him. No scent trails to work with, but the guy is probably not even human. Me and Minato are tracking him; we're both sensor types but Minato can retreat faster with Hiraishin.'_

_ 'We've found him. I've set up a mental seal so if I forget the Shinigami is around, I toss the notebook to the side and forget about it as well. If you read this, future me, I hope you got plenty of ladies after the war.'_

Jiraiya scratched the side of his head with a finger, sweatdropping at his own past self's antics. The Shinigami was heading to Konoha with mind-warping skills and he was talking about ladies. Maybe it _was_ a bit of an obsession. '_Nahhhh…'_

He got back to the last paragraph. _'A Shinigami versus Minato, the Third, and two Sannin. Let's see how this goes.'_

The page ended. Jiraiya flipped over, desperately squinting past the mud stains with chakra-enhanced vision. _'He's not hostile, well… he's ambiguous about his motives, whether he's going to attack or not. The Third is pulling me and Orochy together to escort him to Konoha, and Minato and Sensei are going back to Konoha to prepare an defence and evacuation. It's a big gap on our fronts now, but with Iwa cowering for some reason and Kumo busy with Mizu, there's just Suna travelling through the land of Rivers to worry about; and Suna love their Hidden Village because the environment is so hostile, so they've been defensive most of the war. We don't need to worry about any major villages unless there's an intel leak._

_'At this pace, which is just a leisurely stroll, we'll hit Konoha in four days. Maybe he'll attack, maybe he'll just explore the home village. He makes it sound like he's just out for a stroll and wiping out masses of people out of sheer boredom.'_

Jiraiya turned to the next page, absently noting his breathing faster than normal and he wasn't focusing on the environment properly. _This_ was suspense.

The next entry was much less tidy – written while walking, it seemed. _'Orochy seems a bit worried. First time I've ever seen him like that. Odd fact, the Shinigami keeps referring to all of us with 'san', even the gaki, except for Orochy. He doesn't deserve the honour, I guess, but I don't know why __I__ do. And the Shinigami seems to know that Asuma Sarutobi just made chuunin, even though Asuma could have earned that promotion anywhere in the Land of Fire._

_'He seems more supernatural than human. He has no presence, other than the very faintest chakra presence. He gives off no body heat and makes no sound as he walks. He can tell whatever we're doing even at a distance, even before any of us showed ourselves to him. He has this sort of dignity and stiffness that the Uchiha have, I'm honestly not sure if it _is_ Madara, except… well, he just knew I wrote that and denied it with a smirk in his tone.'_

There was some more indecipherable scribbles, the muddy water destroying the ink._ '…duty to describe him. It's just like the legends say; has a sort of growling but silky voice (can't describe it unless you hear it)… his amount of self-assurance makes me jealous. He doesn't seem flustered by us nor the potential of an entire Hidden Village ready to ambush him. He wears a flowing black coat, has a chakra presence – suppressed but probably jounin levels – but no visible chakra coils (Kakashi reported that). The coat reaches to his feet and has a long hood, concealing his entire face. I'm debating whether to enter Sage Mode; it does nothing for my looks, but it might gain me more information on him… but if he thinks it's an attack…_

_'We'll be in Konoha in two days now. He does seem to sleep, and he rests easily even with two hostile Sannin mere metres away from him… but that could be expected, he seems to know what both of us are thinking and about things that are happening a good distance away, a totally inhumane ability. That being the case, me and Orochy are trading night shifts. For once my teammate is civil and I'm forced to be professional as well… __groan__.'_

This was definitely the way past him would write. He would crack jokes in any scenario, lighten the mood, even if it was just him on his own. If this was a fake, this was beyond Sharingan copying; they had his personality down pat and the historical information was spot on as well. Jiraiya didn't remember ever going to Konoha on an October 27th, though; he thought that was just another day on the line at Kumo.

Another entry. _'Urgh. It's night watch and I'm in Sage Mode, I almost wish I hadn't bothered. His chakra is horrible to look at – makes me feel like I'm gonna die. It's __quivering__ in his body… not flowing naturally, it's also flowing much faster than most people, but seems to be __shaking__ almost, irregularly. Looks like Yin, mostly Yin. But he __does__ have chakra. Jounin levels, like I estimated. He's nonchalant about the Sage Mode, acting like he hasn't noticed. Orochy looks even more tense, and he's never liked that I managed Sage Mode before he did._

Next page. _'Orochy is asking him a bunch of questions and the Shinigami is as cool as you can imagine. Can't make out a trace of the Shinigami's real looks, but his gaze is something I quickly grew to dislike. It's beyond penetrating. I'm not sure Konoha would be able to defend if he knows exactly what the defences are. Me and Orochy don't know, but I haven't seen make a single indication that he's performing a technique, haven't felt anything either – if it's automati-'_

The writing cut off and a new sentence cut in, the scribbling much faster. _'SHIT. That black stuff is somehow inside me, inside my body, bits of it near my heart and some parts very slowly moving to my brain, millimetre by millimetre. I can't tell where it entered. Shit, it's everywhere, all around the guy, in the trees, the ground, everywhere. If it wasn't night I would've noticed quicker. This isn't looking good. I'm going to toss the notebook early; maybe I'll write and toss more papers but I doubt it.'_

Jiraiya flipped to the next page, but it was blank. So was the next. And the next.

"Good readin' huh?" the bartender grinned, making him jolt. He frowned at his own reaction – he'd never been startled like that while reading before. "I always thought he was a legend, since the records were always messed up or taken as jokes, but there's more to it than that, no?"

"Yeah…" Jiraiya exhaled thoughtfully. "I suppose I better hop back to Konoha with this news."

Nanami scrubbed another glass, head facing down like she had never talked with him, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. "Nice doin' business with ya."

"See ya." Jiraiya didn't forget to leave a tip, to grease the wheels on the next batch of information.

He staggered outside, the sake still affecting him slightly. Nanami had surprised him again… never in his wildest dreams did he imagine something like _that_ being found. This was shocking information. The Shinigami obviously hadn't wiped out Konoha, but it sounded like he could just make everyone forget about the people he killed; he could have cut the population in half and no one would blink an eye.

The Shinigami had chakra? It made sense, now that Jiraiya knew the Shiki Fūjin seal worked; the technique had to connect with it using the chakra. But was this just a man? Or was it really some sort of deity that only turned up during shinobi wars like the rumours said?

Was he still in Konoha or had he just moved on?

Meanwhile, a newspaper bearing a headline of the Uchiha massacre fluttered in his hand, completely forgotten.

* * *

"I saw it," A Zetsu clone said, shivering and rocking back and forth on his heels. "I saw it."

Obito and the other Zetsu watched on in bewilderment. Obito had been forced to pull the clone out of the Uchiha compound using Kamui after it refused to move by itself due to trauma – the other clones were only as strong as it was, so it couldn't be carried or pulled through the ground, and the Zetsu clones weren't going to attack each other.

He'd never seen a Zetsu act like that. "Was he hit by Tsukuyomi?" Obito guessed uncertainly.

The Zetsu clones shook their heads in a creepy copy of each other, while the original White Zetsu spoke up. "No, but he was the closest to that killing intent we felt earlier. There was this boy running around and he let off a _huge_ amount of it when he fought Itachi."

"Surely you're immune to something like that, Zetsu?"

"I am," White Zetsu responded, most of his usual cheer absent.

"This is unusual behaviour," Black Zetsu interjected.

"I saw it," the clone repeated, shivering.

"Tell me what you saw," Obito ordered, throwing a genjutsu on him.

The clone's eyes lost their fear and became dull. "Death. I saw death."

The Zetsus exchanged glances. Obito sent more chakra through the genjutsu, frowning. Zetsus didn't respond to KI; they were artificial humans, and weren't even born.

Then the Zetsu clone exploded into a rant. "The boy wields death. The boy controls death. How does he control death? Why does he control death? Death should not be controlled. He's not controlling it. He's not scared. Why not? Why is he not scared?"

The Zetsu clones began to mumble amongst themselves, disturbed. Obito would be rolling his eyes at the show of fear, but he knew Zetsus didn't respond to that.

Black Zetsu frowned. The only KI that would affect it was someone who targeted plants._ 'Is it Death Release?'_

As Black Zetsu was pretending to have been created from an aged Madara's experiments, as a manifestation of Madara's will, he wasn't meant to know of the Rikudō Sennin unless Madara did, or about the three sealed bloodlines.

Of course, since he had been around since Rikudō sealed Kaguya, he knew of them. They were meant to be permanently sealed, but apparently that wasn't the case…

Now that Black Zetsu thought about it, Death Release was the only explanation. And if Death Release was around, that meant Dimension Release was too… maybe Black Zetsu could find the Dimension Release user and go back in time to make more changes…

If Death Release was around Konoha's Jinchūriki they may well have a lot of problems getting to him later. It might call for a premature capture – but then the Uzumaki would have to be held in a medical coma. With Kyuubi fighting the medicine, that wouldn't last, regardless of the concoctions they made.

Death Release was control of death to a very high extent – or rather, control of entropy. Every living being and every surface contained some of the insects (Kaguya called the species 'Vashta Nerada').

People felt Vashta Nerada all the time. Every shadow and every dark night held them. Every death that occurred drew them. A battlefield was a feasting ground – surviving shinobi lost their sanity often simply because excess Vashta Nerada on the battlefield infected their mind, influenced them to suicidal or homicidal behaviour – it would lead to more food for them if their owners were destabilised.

Even animals weren't exempt from feeling the swarms. And nearly all plants were at risk from being consumed.

Autumn leaves didn't shrivel up and fall off because the sun was shining less or it was cooler. The Vashta Nerada simply became more active in the darker days. Although they greatly preferred meat, unless they were in larger numbers, they were very passive, to the point of not wanting to move at all. As they slowly ate the minerals and cells out of the leaves, the leaves suffered.

But the insects were silent and ridiculously small; you could fit a hundred on the head of a pin. They were fast, too.

In small numbers, as they normally were, they were unremarkable and unnoticeable, not even a worry. They were the background cleaners of the world; patiently awaiting the patient's death, consuming them at such a slow pace you would equate it to death of old age. They weren't aggressive or even noticeable at all in their normal quantities.

In larger numbers… they were the stuff of **_nightmares_**, capable of evaporating flesh from bone, ignoring how powerful you were with chakra entirely. They could clear an entire roomful of people in seconds. It didn't matter to them if they were Kage or not; there was no escape from them once a person carried another shadow, other than begging the Death Release user for mercy.

Theoretically, there was a way to do it, but the conditions had never been matched by anyone: you'd have to produce an immense chakra flare at all points of your body to prevent nearby Vashta Nerada reaching you, then quickly teleport away using something like Hiraishin or a summon to escape without moving through the air they were contaminating _or_ cutting off the flare. Which meant only two people was capable of doing it – the Second and Fourth Hokage, wielders of Hiraishin.

Kaguya had been horrified to discover them when she first attained her eyes. She spent a good week hovering in mid-air using chakra, not wanting to touch the ground or her own shadow out of sheer disgust and fear. As a manifestation of Kaguya's will, Black Zetsu carried that disgust.

Black Zetsu had considered theories that Mangekyō chakra attracted them and the Senju chakra was disliked by them.

Death Release was Rikudō's way of attempting to subvert them, to control decay to an extent. Heaven Release was the counterbalance; it controlled the life itself. The decaying and the growing were complete opposites.

One could see why nature had a life-to-death cycle; it was simply Vashta Nerada. But make no mistake, those things were _not_ natural to Kaguya, by any means. Nature didn't need to adjust to them, but they were not insects.

Kaguya had discovered that when she had saw them in the sea, swirling with the currents. They could sit in target bodies for decades without moving, feeding on just a few hundred cells over decades. They didn't need to breathe air. And somehow they communicated as well with the other swarms whose paths they crossed.

The first Death Release user had become a dictator. Everyone disliked him on sight, and everyone feared him; from birth he was ostracised. His personality distorted to accommodate it.

Cunning and telepathic, he remained unnoticed by the Rikudō Sennin as his land suffered. But if there was anything the Rikudō excelled at, it was fuuinjutsu. He had sealed the bloodlines and dethroned the dictator, putting him into a coma, effectively killing him as his people turned against the comatose ruler.

What was more worrying was Death Release's sealing also affected Heaven Release's sealing, and Dimension Release as well. All were _very_ significant problems. The nature of the Heaven bloodline meant you could not lie to someone about your intentions. You could lie to a Death Release user, if you were clever and _very_ brave – or if you had Heaven Release yourself. The countering bloodline had immunity.

Both bloodlines were proof against genjutsu and seals, but for different reasons. The Vashta Nerada controlled entropy, but Heaven Release held a doujutsu that let them see the truth.

And a Dimension Release user with control of his bloodline knew more than he ever seemed to find out – being that if he moved backward in time, his future selves vanished; effectively, a new timeline was travelled to – and a Dimension Release user could not be surprised by anything because of that. He just needed to hop back in time ten seconds and your ambush was ruined.

Your only hope to defeat him was such a fast ambush attack that he had no second to activate his bloodline – and almost no people were capable of that speed. Maybe the Third/Fourth Raikage's Lightning Armour would work.

The Dimension Release user, despite a seal against him, retained his powers and confronted the Rikudō a few months later. During the battle, losing his advantage, he travelled back in time to attack him while he was still sealing the Death Release user. Rikudō only knew about the first battle because he looked into his memories.

During the second battle, Rikudō had surprising difficulty, as fighting a time traveller isn't battling _predictive_ abilities, but _predestination_. One could state a punch was coming with the Sharingan a moment before they moved; but imagine if you were fighting someone you could _never_ surprise? No matter what you change to be unpredictable, they have already seen it.

He wasn't the Rikudō Sennin for nothing, however. Despite overwhelming odds he knew the limits of Dimension Release well, being the person who gave chakra to all mankind. He managed to forge and place a seal that blocked off the Dimension user's memories. The Dimension Release user reduced to an amnesiac simpleton, the bloodline was then sealed after Rikudō came up with a seal he knew would work – lest the past time actually keep the Dimension Release user powered.

How did Black Zetsu know this? He had watched, his feelers spread out, picking up rumours, and rarely dropping onto people when they were alone and checking their memories himself.

Because a Heaven Release and Death Release bloodline were dependent on each other, the two carriers had to find and either kill or capture the other, to ensure their own safety. If one fell into a coma, so would the other, both becoming dormant. If one was killed, the balance would fall apart, killing the other – unless it was the countering bloodline carrier who killed them, oddly, that would be fine.

Somewhere, a Heaven Release person had fell comatose as Rikudō sealed the Death Release carrier, but the Rikudō Sennin never found him. Black Zetsu never did either, since he was tracking Rikudō as closely as possible. It wasn't hard, the man was godlike compared to most chakra wielders, the talk of the town no matter what his deed.

Black Zetsu made a note to find one of the scrolls describing the two bloodlines. If the Death Release boy was at all capable of controlling his bloodline, being in the same village as a Jinchūriki… it would make things a problem if he was loyal. Perhaps the fact he wasn't Hokage was enough to prove against that – he probably hated the village due to his bloodline making them against him.

Still, back when the Rikudō was around, no one had a good grasp of chakra. Now, with Konoha's ANBU, and villages full of shinobi capable of identifying mental attacks – someone like a Death Release user couldn't be anywhere as untouchable as the first dictator. And the new one was a child.

Back then, someone who was telepathic was godlike. Nowadays, people could be telepathic with a single hand seal and some practice. No, the user wasn't a problem like it was back then.

He was worth keeping an eye on, though – and Obito may waste resources and expose himself to the genjutsu-proof kid if he didn't find out why a White Zetsu clone was so traumatised by him. Obito could hardly appear, throw the boy in a honesty/amnesia genjutsu and vanish away like he often did – the bloodline made that impossible.

So Black Zetsu spoke up once the traumatised White Zetsu clone finished its rant. "I heard Madara investigated a bloodline like this. It's made from the extremities of spiritual chakra, and is immune to genjutsu."

Obito turned back to him with a frown. "Immune?"

"It's like an Aburame," Black Zetsu explained, "the insects cancel out the genjutsu flow. Unlike an Aburame, the insects are much smaller, and capable of emitting very powerful killing intent."

A half-truth: They did emit KI, but regardless of the level, Zetsus wouldn't succumb to KI from normal humans. An entire crowd of Kage angered by a Zetsu wouldn't make it flinch. It was only Death Release's unique nature, as one that targeted plants as well as humans, that could evoke a reaction from a plant-human.

"That's a considerable killing intent," Obito considered, stroking his chin. "But he fell to Itachi, so that's just his only trump card."

_'Dismiss it,'_ Black Zetsu willed the fallen Uchiha silently as he pondered it.

"Whatever," Obito dismissed with a wave of his hand, "I'll watch for him when we obtain the Uzumaki."

"Itachi has become a missing-nin," White Zetsu interjected cheerfully, "Perhaps we could have him join Akatsuki?"

Obito frowned, weighing the options. "Maybe. It'd make it easier to keep an eye on him, and it means his chances of returning is minimalized… that's a good suggestion…"

* * *

Yasha sneezed, rubbing his nose blearily. Some idiot was talking about him again. Hopefully they'd die and keep themselves to themselves. He settled back into the Snap game he was playing with Michiko.

"Ah! Snap!" the two-year-old called with a grin, snatching up the cards.

"That's a lion and a tiger. They're not the same," he corrected, trying to take them back half-heartedly.

"They're from the same animal tree! They're just big cats!" Michiko protested, protecting the cards from his grasp.

"This isn't a biology class. The cards have to be exactly the same!"

"Nuh uh! Etsuko-chan, tell him!"

The three-week-old Etsuko snored softly from her small futon, oblivious to their expectant gazes. They watched her for a second, before Michiko turned back with a firm nod. "See! She agrees!"

"She didn't say anything!" Yasha objected, grinning despite himself.

"She's a girl, and girls always agree that men don't win."

Yasha blinked. "…You came from a weird household." He rubbed his face, giving up. "Fine, take the cards."

"Yatta!" Michiko threw the new cards down on her pile happily. _'I'm winning!'_

"Yasha-sama, what are these?" Keito poked the child-sized futons on the side, still in their plastic packets.

Yasha craned his neck. "Oh, those are your beds, Keito-kun. Some futons."

"Ah." Keito inspected them thoughtfully. His house had only had beds, but futons were quite common as well.

Yasha worked out what he was thinking of. "It's not hard to learn how to pack 'em, it's just rolling it up, and putting the pillow on top."

"Hai, Yasha-sama." Keito nodded.

Takeshi tugged at his t-shirt. "Hey, niisan… why do you call him Yasha-sama and not Yasha-niisan?"

Keito hesitated. "You'll understand when you're older."

"I don't have to call him that, do I?" Takeshi frowned at Yasha, who gave him a one-armed shrug.

Keito copied the shrug. "It's up to you, but I'd say you should."

Takeshi's frown deepened. "He's my niisan, though…"

His niisan by blood blanched, but swallowed his protest. It was part of Yasha's plan to protect them, so he had to support it. Who knew what the older boy was really planning with all these odd details – this was someone whose plans had managed to sneak seven kids out of a place that Itachi was slaughtering everyone in. "I guess…" he acquiesced without much conviction.

Takeshi frowned at him. "Are you mad at Yasha?"

"No. No, I'm just… not used to this yet." Keito sighed, almost as weary-sounding as Yasha was. "It's fine." He gave Takeshi an analysing look and changed tact. "Want to play Uno?"

"Sure!" Takeshi's two-year-old mind instantly dismissed all the empathy he was feeling.

Michiko fidgeted as Yasha watched Keito from the corner of his eye. "Yasha-niisan, can I have some strawberries?"

"Strawberries?" Yasha looked back and blinked at her. These kids didn't make a lick of sense. Kids that age never made sense. Hurry up, a few months from now, when he could release them into the wild.

"Hai, strawberries. I _love_ strawberries," Michiko insisted.

"Hmm. We'll see." Yasha was planning to get something simple from the shops as supper. He really should have thought out using the stove before; his plans had several holes now he had actually managed to pull the rescue off.

They couldn't have bento for all three meals; they needed something wholesome, whenever Yasha could make it. Keito couldn't be trusted, because letting an eight-year-old use the stove, even an Uchiha eight-year-old, was not a particularly bright decision.

"Thanks… Yasha-_sama_," the little girl replied cheerfully, the new honorific carrying a little _too_ much emphasis and expectancy.

Yasha rolled his eyes at her faux-innocent expression. A three-year-old had about as much tact as… well, as he did when he was too bored to make any effort. Maybe Naruto's level of tact. "Hai, hai."

* * *

"I can't believe that kid," Itachi spoke out loud, just to hear his own voice. He was four days out of Konoha.

He had slept a total of six hours in that time, moving silently, covering his scent and footprints, dodging every leaf lest the dew he knocked off gave his path away. He was exhausted, and a part of him was noticing he was beginning to lose his grip on reality from fatigue. But every time he had slept, he woke up sweating from a nightmare of the Sharingan-memorised murder scenes. Every time he was awake, there was only fighting off paranoia and guilt or busying himself with travel.

Two things were simultaneously a source of comfort and perplexity to him.

Yasha was one. A boy who was an outsider, having a mysterious information source, yet gaining access to the Jinchūriki with ease, and the Third Hokage allowed citizenship and a very late entry into the Academy (which in itself suggested he was a shinobi prodigy). In the middle of the chaos of… the _mission_, he had managed to avoid three powerful shinobi executing everyone in sight, all bearing Sharingan, and rescue _seven_ kids.

Seven. That meant he went out of the compound, put them somewhere he thought was safe, and then went _back_. Back into hell itself, risking his life recklessly for children he barely knew.

(Itachi knew he was a baby-sitter, but hell… Itachi knew _shinobi_ who would refuse to put themselves in harm's way for _their_ _own family_)

Itachi sighed, pulling a leaf off the tree in front of him and picking bits off it absently.

Yūrei had been covering the civilian section, but he was a master of assassination. It made Itachi's skin crawl to imagine going against Yūrei as someone as ill-equipped as Yasha was – pre-genin with any chakra expelling leading to anyone nearby knowing he was there.

Although Yūrei hadn't moved against Yasha, probably because he wasn't an Uchiha – with black chakra, no one with Sharingan could make that mistake. But why didn't Yūrei attack the Uchiha kids being taken out?

Or maybe he had, and he used some sort of delayed poison so Yasha hadn't caught on that the rescued kids weren't rescued at all? …no, that wasn't Yūrei's style. He was a cut-and-dry killer; he liked to do the job as quickly and cleanly as possible; it made verifying the kill easy and quick. If Yasha had been through the civilian section, Yūrei must have just ignored him and the kids. Which meant Yūrei had, in essence, _protected_ the kids…

Itachi sat up with a start, the leaf suddenly crushed in his hand. Yūrei had known about Yasha's rescue plan all along. That was why Yūrei had asked to take care of the civilian section despite being more suitable for assassinating shinobi. When had Yūrei found out about Yasha?!

Itachi hadn't told, Yasha wouldn't tell anyone and would be too close to the Jinchūriki to be threatened, which just left Shisui.

Shisui wouldn't tell, would he? The deceased Shisui. It had to be him.

Why was Shisui dead? It was an infiltration mission, one of Yūrei's specialties. He could have got Shisui in and out undetected while setting off fireworks. And why did Yūrei bring back Shisui's body? ANBU procedure was to incinerate the body as soon as possible.

Itachi briefly wondered if it was the lack of sleep making him doubt the fellow ANBU member. He frowned. No, something was off. Yūrei appeared to be following his own agenda all this time. He let the kids being rescued and Yasha go free, without telling Danzō or the Hokage about them, casually betrayed Root, assisted in killing all the Uchiha… and he might have killed Shisui, after somehow gaining details about Yasha. The mission always felt fishy to Itachi, but he had dismissed it due to Yūrei's perfect record and the trust that brought, as well as his own personal attachment and stress levels throwing off his judgement. He concluded his judgement would be biased. That could be the case now, but Itachi was still sure he was missing something.

So, Yūrei hadn't told the Hokage about the kids – so he wasn't letting the Hokage lead his agenda. Was his agenda his own or someone else's?

No one who liked Konoha would want the Uchiha to stay alive, especially not Shunshin no Shisui. They wouldn't rescue Uchiha kids, though – unless it was another village trying to gain an Uchiha line. If it was someone after the Uchiha, or the Sharingan… no, Itachi had been healed by Yūrei's actions, that threw that possibility out the window.

But surely Operative Ghost was trustworthy. He had prevented the Uchiha uprising before this one, four years ago, by publicly rebuking the clan elders in front of all the clan's shinobi. That morning, Yūrei was one of the most respected Uchiha to the clan. That night, he was betraying scum.

Itachi still remembered that meeting, sitting there with a suppressed wince as Fugaku, stress lines on his face, was about to cave in and finally give a date for the coup attempt.

When Yūrei had spoken up, which was a rarity in the meetings (and he still wore his mask to them), he went against the elders and had said…

…What had he said?

He said _something_. What was it?

Gah, Itachi couldn't remember. His mind was foggy from lack of sleep. It was definitely effective, though. The coup date slid back like it was on an oiled slope, and ended up four years later – _four years_.

But since Yūrei had prevented the first coup – it made no sense if he would be happy with the second coup going ahead and not the first. An enemy village would have jumped at the chance to kill the Uchiha – in fact, it would have let the coup go ahead unimpeded, let the Uchiha start a civil war, then moved in during the chaos.

And that obviously hadn't happened. Yūrei's agenda, whatever it was, didn't seem geared to an enemy village's benefit. But neither was it under the Hokage's control like all ANBU needed, nor even Danzō's control. So then, who? Just his own plans?

Kami-sama, what kind of a man could make plans involving genocide, kidnapping in the middle of a massacre, and dancing around Danzō and the Third Hokage himself? _Who_ could play those roles so well both of those men were fooled?

Well, he was definitely one of a kind. That was something Itachi knew very well. Yūrei was newbie ANBUs' role model. Anyone that worked with him just _once_ gained a deep respect for him.

It was the rare combination of professional ruthlessness and empathy that captured Itachi's affection during their first mission together. Yūrei could become emotionless in a heartbeat, but also empathic to his team and ensuring they were emotionally stable.

ANBU tended to have one quality – professional conciseness, sometimes to the point of being devoid of personality (that point came recommended in general ANBU, but in Root it was mandatory); while empathy was thrown out the window as a weakness not suitable for those in black ops. The ability to emphasise had made Yūrei Itachi's ANBU role model, and that was _months_ before Ghost had intervened and prevented the first coup.

Still, it was downright _unnatural_ how he could just switch off his humanity to do what was essentially genocide, when Itachi himself wrestled with his emotions for several hours. His empathy was real, but it could just be… switched off. It was as unnerving as it was desirable to an ANBU shinobi – at least, for one who wished to remain socially normal.

_'Kami, I'd love to be in a soft futon right now…'_ He rubbed his face blearily, continuing his walk. Just another twenty miles and he'd be at the border to Kumo. He wouldn't go too far inside Kumo, just to the nearest village. There he'd rest and await orders while piecing himself back together and thinking about the mystery of those two.

* * *

It took only four days for Kabuto to make his move and deliver the letter.

"Ibiki… a message for you," one of the T&amp;I staff reported, passing it over.

Ibiki tore open the message and read it with his eyes widening fractionally. _'A message about a possible traitor delivered in letter format? About this sort of event?'_

"An interesting message?" an arriving voice asked as it neared him.

Ibiki's eyes reverted to inexpressive and he glanced at the two men. "Oh, Inoichi, Shikaku." He looked back down at the letter with a scowl. "I suppose it is. I have a message here informing me an ANBU Operative Yūrei is to be placed under suspicion for the events of the Uchiha massacre. It's signed by yourself, Shikaku-san."

"Ho?" Shikaku smiled thinly. "Ironically we were just coming to ask your opinion of him."

"…You didn't write this then?" Ibiki realised, handing it to him.

"Indeed not." Shikaku frowned at it. "Printed letters, too, no handwriting to trace."

_'Is it Danzō? No, probably not… Yūrei is one of his agents, isn't he?'_ the Nara thought.

Ibiki nodded, his gaze hard. "So someone else has suspicions… who is this Yūrei?"

"ANBU, since the start of the Third Shinobi War, I believe," Shikaku offered absently, scanning the message for clues. "Highly thought of, but he's recently been in a mission where someone who died unexpectedly. I wanted any info you have on him – I suspect there may be more to this trust than a bond."

Ibiki scowled darkly as the message got through. "A genjutsu? Over the Hokage? So you suspect Shisui to have been…"

Shikaku shrugged. "His body was recovered and sent to the Uchiha compound prior to the massacre half a week ago. We'll need access to their morgue records."

"Certainly, that I can arrange." Ibiki felt a bit relieved they weren't digging for more restrictive information – both held considerable political power in T&amp;I and could make things difficult for Ibiki; one being the former head of T&amp;I, had plenty of friends here, while the other was commander of all the jounin positioned here, and the line blurred as to whether he was commander of Ibiki himself. Morgue records wouldn't tell you much more than who died and how; most of those cases were relatively public knowledge, so it wasn't a security issue for anyone inside the village.

The trio went through the plain concrete corridors and grey walls until Ibiki went through a few security seals, before they emerged in a large-ceiling room.

The scarred interrogator glanced around the cabinets, finding the set he wanted. "It's fortunate they kept the morgue records underground the Police Station, or that black flames would have done it in… but here they are."

The two men stood by the side, Inoichi now reading Ibiki's letter that Shikaku had passed to him. Ibiki went through few file cabinets before he frowned, double-checking. "Shisui's body hasn't been checked in."

Shikaku did an obligatory check of the cabinets himself (this was a genjutsu user they were dealing with) before he nodded, a worried look now on his face. "We'll need access to Shisui's mission records. He may have been compromised a while ago and an impersonator in his place."

Ibiki frowned. Shisui was a body-flicker expert and could escape nearly all scenarios given a few tenths of a second – what they were implying was a death and impersonator planted. He also lived in the Uchiha compound; an impersonator would have a hard time having their genjutsu remain unnoticed. "What makes you think that?"

Shikaku closed the final drawer stiffly. "Yūrei was active a couple of months ago; if he's used genjutsu to gain trust, it was before Shisui's last mission, which as all ANBU missions are, was assigned by the Hokage. Shisui must have been present, or someone with his eye."

Ibiki gave a humourless smile. "If the Hokage has been compromised, I think the next step of command is the elder council. If that's been compromised too, which if the Hokage has been it's not unreasonable to assume so, the duty falls to you, Jounin Commander Shikaku."

"Troublesome…" the man griped, rubbing his forehead. "I suppose I'll have to ask all three."

* * *

Fortunately for the lazy Nara, all three advisors were sat together already when the three jounin visited them.

"Yūrei?" Homura replied, eyebrow raised. "He's a very capable operative."

Koharu nodded her assent beside him, and Danzō just narrowed his eyes at them. "What is this about, Shikaku-san?"

Shikaku coughed, and Ibiki shook his head at him. "We're just testing a theory. Do you three trust him?"

"He's performed admirably all this time, I say I do."

"I agree with Homura." Koharu nodded.

"You think he's untrustworthy?" Danzō asked, his visible eye now closed in thought.

"He has some suspicions raised about him. We're just chasing it up."

"All three of you?" Danzō probed with incredibility.

"Yes, it would appear so," Shikaku retorted a bit sharply, bored of the verbal games.

"Would you say you trust him, Danzō?"

Danzō frowned. "From what I know he is trustworthy, very highly so. He'd never betray Konoha."

"Interesting," Ibiki noted. The number of people Danzō trusted that much could be counted on one hand. There was a brief silence while the three advisors looked perturbed and the three shinobi shared questioning looks.

"We have reason to believe Yūrei is acting against Konoha and planning a coup," Inoichi said flatly. All three tensed, eyes widened. Koharu dropped her cup of tea with a clatter.

"No way is he!" Homura exclaimed.

"Impossible!" Koharu echoed.

"No, you must be mistaken!" Danzō denied.

"That last statement was false," Inoichi began, earning glares, "but I would like for you to tell me if there is a greater than 0% chance of Yūrei being against Konoha."

"I'll say no…" Koharu said, before her eyes widened as she realised how naïve she was being.

Danzō gritted his teeth, biting back an equivalent response, his dull brown eye suddenly sharp and menacing as he connected the dots. "A genjutsu? I feel that it's no, almost impossible… but I'm not this sure of _anybody_."

_'You wouldn't be, war makes power-hungry people like you paranoid,'_ Inoichi thought.

"We have reason to believe both the elder council and the Hokage have been compromised by Yūrei. We'd like to declare a lockdown emergency and have him arrested."

Danzō knew Yūrei was watching Yasha and Sasuke; the ANBU had reported to him what his mission was. That was a problem; the two boys didn't live together, which meant one Yūrei was a shadow clone.

How the hell did he not see this sooner?

Shikaku coughed. "We'll be going through with that measure under section 5C of Compromised Command. You three should remain here."

"Would you happen to know where Yūrei is placed, Danzō-san?" Inoichi asked tentatively.

Danzō wasn't _officially_ in the know, ANBU reported to the Hokage directly in nearly all cases, but the fact Inoichi was asking left him certain the blond knew of his unofficial group.

The bandaged man acquiesced and informed them of Yūrei's current mission.

"Do you three recognise the genjutsu applied?" Shikaku ventured. "It'll be risky to involve genjutsu-affected personnel but with your agreement I'll be capable of talking to the Hokage – and he's the only one capable of knowing Yūrei's abilities."

'_Officially_ capable' went unsaid. Danzō held his tongue and agreed stiffly, the other two members looking a bit uncertain but following his lead. "Well, I have files on Yūrei on my desk; I've been questioning his report of the last mission, which was taken with the elder council present."

"Any information would be helpful," Inoichi agreed, but none of the men even considered Danzō would allow them near his office.

* * *

A black-haired boy stood stiffly, uncommonly injury-free for a Root member. He was waiting at Danzō's office, which only contained a desk and chair and about ten seal traps when the man finally arrived with a swirl of leaves. The boy remained stiff and didn't comment on the rare shunshin use by his leader.

Danzō barely kept back the scowl as he went through his desk. Damnit, he'd put the files on Yūrei's missions back. What did he have on Yūrei? _'Yūrei couldn't be a traitor. No, that was impossible. Damnit. Even with my genjutsu training, and my own seal mastery… hmm, I've got it. Risky, but it will do.'_

Danzō hastily scribbled on some paper, adding chakra writing and circles, surrounded with a chakra-less mask.

A slow-inject chakra seal. A good way to disrupt genjutsu. It was done two minutes later, and Danzō double-checked the markings. Not a line out of place.

His eye flickered up to the boy standing to attention in front of him. Conveniently timed. "Operative 37, charge up this seal with as much chakra as you have spare, and report."

The boy did so, his blank eyes running over the seal briefly but having no capacity to read it behind the mask.

"Takigakure is sending an envoy including two names of Fū and Shibuki, and three other members of suspected chuunin or jounin rank. Shibuki is Takikage, as Operative Yūrei reported, but appears rather uneasy, and Fū is not recognised, but has significant chakra presence and is not particularly liked by the unknown members, although she is on good terms with the Takikage. It's possible she's a Jinchūriki. However, the group do not appear to have ulterior motives and discuss little other than benefits the alliance will bring."

_'Odd,'_ Danzō thought, as he put the seal on his free arm and poured chakra into it, making him grit his teeth as the influx of chakra began.

The seal pulled in Danzō's chakra and ejected some of the stored operative 37's, disrupting Danzō's chakra flow constantly until it was removed. At a guess, Danzō had a most of a day before it drained completely; genjutsu release and distortion didn't require much chakra at all, but he had been cautious and bumped it up to higher-rank genjutsu levels. Operative 37 had put in a high amount, just as a logic would have it; all 37 had been doing today was running back from Takigakure, all of that journey was in the Land of Fire and caution wasn't needed.

_'Odd, he let the Takigakure mission go through and have them apply for an alliance. I have enough belief that 37 didn't miss any people, and even if he did, they must enter the Land of Fire's border and the village barrier on their way here; such a short time implies Taki doesn't know of Shisui's death, so there's no ulterior motives behind their party._

_'And that suggests it __**was**__ Yūrei who disposed of Shisui, by my order…'_ Danzō frowned to himself. "Operative, get me a report on Yūrei. Any skills you know he excels at. I need it in ten minutes, get as many people as you need to help you."

"Hai." The boy nodded and left the office rapidly, not showing any signs he had been running most of the day… as per his training.

Danzō fell back into his chair, wincing as the seal activated again, distorting his flow. He'd have a chakra burn there later, he'd need to get that looked at. And it made him pretty much defenceless.

More to the point, what was Yūrei's motives? He let the Uchiha die and the Taki mission succeed, covered up Shisui's death order, let Itachi escape…

He wasn't a friend of the Uchiha, nor an enemy of Konoha. He didn't oppose or reveal Danzō's hidden plans to Hiruzen. But he was 'overwhelmed' by Itachi during the massacre?

Now that Danzō thought back, Yūrei had no signs of injury, which left Susano'o out, and with Yūrei's seal mastery, Amaterasu wouldn't be a big problem either; fire could be sealed. That just left Tsukuyomi, and if he left Itachi alone to work, that wouldn't be used.

He'd been plotting with Itachi that night all along – but didn't actually save the Uchiha? He was an enigma.

To all intents, he was a loyal pawn of Danzō, bar Itachi's escape. Before that, complete mission successes, most of them confirmed later or by other operatives. He did one act of disloyalty and that was letting Itachi go. His first flaw.

Although… he was a free thinker, branded with Root's seal…

Tsk. He had no chakra presence, so Danzō couldn't check if his chakra (embedded in the tongue seal) was actually present.

Of course his genjutsu-belief that Yūrei was trustworthy made that not a concern when he saw him on a day-to-day basis, but really… If Yūrei had never had the seal at all, or managed to remove it, the fact he suppressed his entire presence would hide that, and Yūrei would be back to his normal free-thinking mindset.

The tongue seal couldn't control all thoughts, it merely inclined them to agree with what Danzō said. When you curbed free will, anything too restrictive would make the brain turn on itself like a bad transplant; recognising its lack of control and the foreign presence. Ultimately the bearer would die.

Suggestions and inclinations were treated as much a product of the brain as foreign, so were much more likely to work; that was why Danzō killed emotion with training and used a seal for loyalty – although a seal could kill emotion by itself, the lack of emotion would be so obvious the bearer would more than likely go into a coma or even die.

So… Yūrei was free-thinking and was free to act disloyally – yet the only time he did, as far as Danzō knew, was to let Itachi go free.

Why Itachi? Sure, he was Uchiha clan heir, and a prodigy, but Yūrei had more experience and a disregard for the Uchiha ways. Why would he follow him or disobey Danzō's order to kill him? Itachi's other distinguishing qualities and statuses… well, there was his age.

Thanks to Yūrei's intervention with delaying the Uchiha coup four years ago, Itachi was now seventeen, rather than thirteen. Likewise Sasuke was thirteen, rather than eight or nine.

Delaying it four years… Yūrei had been involved in the private meetings and told all of them, to their face… _something_. Come to think of it, why would he tell them anything if he had genjutsu that powerful?

Yūrei was ousted from the Uchiha quite publicly, but nonetheless it took three and a half years or so before the coup plans reformed. That was significant; the Uchiha had comparable pride and nobility to the Hyuuga, and the coup originated from that – whatever he did to delay the coup, genjutsu or no, it was significantly effective.

He was a loyal person. And perhaps, Itachi's loyalty appealed to him. And that genjutsu he used, now that Danzō had a handle on his anger and the genjutsu effects itself, was actually _very_ desirable. Imagine if it were a Mangekyō – no, come to think of it, a genjutsu of that level was comparable to Kotoamatsukami, it probably _was_ a Mangekyō ability – then Danzō could take Yūrei's eyes for himself and no questions asked.

Then Danzō could simply inject himself back into Konoha by genjutsu, pretending he had always had the eyes, just like Yūrei had done to get in originally.

The bandaged man glanced at the clock – ten minutes had passed.

He looked back up, frowning. Operative 37 was late, it was unlike a Root member. He'd give him five more minutes then call someone to hunt him down.

The genjutsu was strong, but Yūrei must have used it a while ago, and at least three times. The occasion the elder council plus the Third Hokage; once on the Fourth Hokage, and at least one on some ANBU to get cosy enough with them. Even among Root they thought highly of him.

Even among Root…

Danzō stood back up with a snarl.

* * *

"I see." Yūrei frowned at Operative 37. "Go back to Danzō and do as he says. Pretend you never met me and were just delayed."

The boy nodded and ran off, using body-flickers.

It was fortunate he'd managed to place the genjutsu on him during earlier years – one eye was still shut. The boy had ran to an appointed pressure seal near Yūrei's home, activating it – he was too low on chakra for an ink clone, which meant Danzō knew he had gone walkabout.

Time to dispel and inform the original. "Kai."

The original Yūrei twitched as the new memories hit it. Damn. Judging from the screw-up this was becoming… he'd would soon encounter a trial, and possible execution, for making a Kage subservient to him, even though there hadn't been any direct commands, it could easily be exploited that way. Danzō would happily incriminate him if Danzō's own bandaged self had been hypnotised, just out of sheer fear that he wasn't in control. That advisor had serious control issues, a desire to supersede Hiruzen at the centre of it.

Yūrei's argument would be his loyalty; but the counter-argument could be made that his genjutsu would make people forget to notice any disloyalty, which was a valid point.

His only 'crime' was forcing trust of himself on highly ranked officials. Besides that, the 'crime' of letting Itachi go, which was only truly a crime to Danzō; the Hokage knew of the circumstances and everyone else wouldn't question if Yūrei had the power to stop him. All the ANBU available had been at the massacre site, and none had seen Itachi.

Still, Danzō would bring that latter one up. And like it or not, Itachi was _publicly_ a missing-nin; being part of the reason he escaped would be a serious crime of itself. Danzō would probably bring it up, but the Third Hokage could well deny it…

Hm. He had acted with full loyalty to the Hokage, but nonetheless using a genjutsu on a Kage was serious crime as well – similar to outright coup of itself. It was something so difficult the entire role in the Takigakure mission was getting someone who could place the genjutsu in the right place. The number of people capable of controlling a Kage could be counted on your thumbs.

Although, that Takikage felt more like a chuunin with his presence. He got along amiably with his village subjects, but as a chuunin, and a coward at that, was he really fit for village leadership?

Yūrei glanced back at Yasha, having sent a shadow clone to investigate who activated the seal, he was now quite a distance from his home.

He couldn't avoid the trial; Danzō had not started doubting him on his own or because of Root. Both held genjutsu to prevent their turning against him on the own, and the latter had less free thought space as well.

Since he couldn't fight Yūrei while he was on a mission in the middle of Konoha with teams of ANBU and flashy genjutsu, Danzō's next stop would be the Hokage to make it an overt capture, or he might go to Yūrei himself and use that Sharingan in his right eye.

That was a problem. Yūrei was with Naruto and Yasha now; what Yūrei wanted was Yasha being ignored for as long as possible. His antics were highly interesting.

One plus was, he had almost full reserves right now. The number of techniques and strategies that _that_ fact made possible was in the thousands. He had Sharingan to copy techniques, and genjutsu to pull techniques out of people, after all.

He only had one capable eye if he wanted to use a Mangekyō technique. He could move and sense without vision, but any silent attack would become a serious issue, particularly given he may be up against the Hokage and most of ANBU. They had genjutsu to trust him, and in Root's case, a few had outright amnesiac obedience to him; they would follow his orders and completely forget about it by default.

He couldn't go out with a bang, that wasn't fitting. He wanted to be passive about this. He'd at least be restrained so he wouldn't be able to use chakra, even if the questioning was pleasant. That would ruin things. His clothing seals would make his reaction to suppression rather… violent.

Danzō suspecting him meant someone high up had questioned him – someone who held enough ability for Danzō to question his own opinions. Plus they needed to have no genjutsu on them as well – but honestly, Yūrei didn't know what brought this on. He hadn't interacted with anyone new or highly ranked, and only the elder council and higher even knew he existed. Who had seen through him that Danzō respected? For a man who insisted everyone called him 'sama', that wasn't many.

Maybe Shikaku?

Nara Shikaku was a formidable opponent, to be sure. Jounin Commander and arguably the smartest man in the village. He might have come up with the Taki alliance mission himself… that would explain his involvement when Shisui died on it. Danzō's elevated opinions could be shaken by him, yeah…

Yūrei knew that a trap was awaiting him soon. They'll attempt to do it passively, call him away for a 'report' and trap him in a web of seals, before they mind-walked him.

Yūrei hated the very idea of being mind-walked, hypocritical as it might be. He had applied genjutsu seals on himself, of course, but a paper seal could give away his true identity. He couldn't have that.

Plan of evasion… time for another shadow clone or two.

* * *

Kakashi hummed as he lounged on a rooftop, idly watching people walk by, his finger tapping idly on the cover of his Icha Icha book.

Suddenly a blur appeared beside him. "Hound, please report to the Hokage in ANBU gear."

"Huh?" Kakashi only had time to blink at ANBU Goat before he vanished. He hurriedly body-flickered home, disabling traps as he redressed, his mind racing. _'The Third booted me out of ANBU by __**his own request**__ almost three years ago… why is he suddenly wanting me back in ANBU gear? What happened?'_

He couldn't even speculate what brought this on. Tossing his Icha Icha book on the bedside cabinet, he donned his full gear and weapons, silently thanking his habit of keeping all his gear ready despite his years of non-ANBU activity.

In five minutes he was standing ready in the Hokage Tower, glancing between the people standing there and the Hokage's ANBU guard.

"Hound, it's come to our attention Operative Yūrei…" the Third inspected him closely, every one of the men ready to jump on him if a genjutsu-induced attack activated, "has been using genjutsu to convince others of his loyalty."

Kakashi blanched behind his masks, then he considered it. It was impossible… no, it wasn't. His heart sank and his emotionless mode began to switch back on as a coping mechanism. "So, what do you want me to do? I may have worked with him for the most part of my time in ANBU, but he has a larger mission range than I did. He's stronger than me."

_'Damn it, Yūrei. I trusted you,'_ his mind cursed. Then suddenly Itachi came to mind, and a frown grew under his masks. '_I trusted Itachi, too, and then he went psycho on his clan… something's not right. Even if Yūrei may have used genjutsu, he was always fond of Konoha. Itachi too.'_

He just went ahead and said it. "Why are loyal and capable ANBU of Konoha suddenly turning their backs on it? Itachi and now Yūrei, too."

The Third Hokage's face hardened, suppressing the wincing as his chakra flow distorted again, his own seal activating. Kakashi may have been speaking out of emotion, but he made a good point. This was now the second highly capable ANBU thought loyal that had been thrown away. And now the Hokage had no one reporting into Root's activities, if indeed Danzō hadn't disbanded them and the underground operations continued.

"Two occasions does not indicate a trend, Hound," the Kage said calmly, subtly rebuking in his response. "We know Yūrei's current mission, and this can just be a misunderstanding… But remembering you may have a genjutsu on you, enhancing your view of him, Danzō has mocked up a seal for cancelling it."

Kakashi's eye narrowed, not trusting the man, but if the Third had seen it beforehand… well, good enough for him. He put it on and activated it, thinking of Yūrei.

As the first pulse hit, he didn't feel haziness lift, or anything change. He gave it a minute, wincing as foreign chakra threw off his readiness. "Hokage-sama, are you _sure_ I was one of the targets?"

The men exchanged glances. "Take it off, Hound," Kakashi obeyed, "and answer this question… what's the chance of Yūrei being disloyal?"

"Low, but present, I suppose, based on this meeting."

There was a pregnant pause and all the men looked contemplative.

"Hmm. He wasn't targeted," Inoichi concluded thoughtfully. "Why was that?"

Shikaku coughed lightly, gaining everyone's attention. "It was be unnecessary if Hound joined ANBU when Yūrei had already been there for a while. If Yūrei had already enforced trust on the current ANBU, the general trust from the other ANBU would have worked just as well. Then Kakashi's missions with Yūrei, which he was loyal in, would have worked better anyway."

Hiruzen nodded. "Hmm. That's a good possibility. So Hound, tell me about Yūrei's abilities."

The operative known as Hound sighed, digging up his memories of his favourite ANBU partner. His body felt numb. _'Two teammates dying in front of me. And now one accused of betraying Konoha.'_

"He was ANBU Captain since I joined. He ran a lot of solo and team missions with perfect successes and minimal injuries. Speaking of when I was on his team, he was protective of his teammates, was uncanny in his ability to track, infiltrate, gather information, and use of the Sharingan."

His chest ached._ 'I thought I had closed off my emotions. I thought I was done with feeling this sort of pain… this sort of loss… damn it…'_

"He wrote his own custom seals often and with practised ease, although he only taught me the basics of fuuinjutsu. He was capable of assassinating with items as small as a clothing needle from a large distance… I witnessed that first-hand."

Shikaku whistled softly as the silver-haired jounin went on. "Like mine, his Sharingan also copied all five of the elements, although I only saw use of… four, total, as he didn't use Earth a lot. He preferred use of Wind, due to its silent and deadly factor, but I don't know his natural affinity. Bar Sharingan, he had no visible bloodline, but his intuition and experience was something I noted; he tended to predict enemies before he even entered the battle."

The Third was silently counting the number of ANBU needed to take the man down, and he interrupted. "He hides his chakra presence with seals. Can you estimate his chakra reserves?"

"Beyond mine, definitely," Kakashi said easily, "He had dual Sharingan activated constantly during all waking hours. In one mission near the start of my ANBU tour, he was leading an ambush mission when a teammate botched it up… Yūrei used three different elements, all A-Rank techniques, in the space of a minute, to give his teammates cover. After that, he was winded."

_"Winded?"_ Koharu repeated in disbelief. "He sounds powerful enough to take a_ Sannin_ on, maybe even _you_, Hiruzen."

The village leader sighed, rubbing his temples. "He _is_ one of the top ANBU, but thanks for your vote of loyalty, Koharu."

The advisor had the decency to look sheepish, but Danzō looked almost smug, knowing he had that man in his Root for so long. True, he could very well be there without Danzō's full control over him, but the man's ego took what it could get.

Hound shrugged. "Winded, yes, he fell back and let the team overcome the targets… which happened with minimal injuries, and Yūrei lead the team out of the country in question still with Sharingan activated. It may have drained his reserves, but with that clearance, the enemy was easily overcome."

"He's at least S-Rank chakra reserves then, and with his techniques and experience, SS-Rank. We'd need myself and several other S-Rank ANBU to take him on."

Hound coughed. "Ah… yes, also, he was the best kenjutsu wielder in the ANBU forces. He was never beaten during spars while I was there."

"He has Sharingan, that could be expected," Danzō interjected.

"If he's pretending to be loyal, he may just come here peaceably…" The Third said thoughtfully, Danzō shooting him a look of resignation. The advisor still didn't understand why Hiruzen was so passive. "So, we'll write seals on the room's exterior, a barrier to prevent momentum… that will essentially trap him here. We'll have ANBU outside maintaining another barrier, which will activate as soon as this momentum barrier does, and we'll evacuate the offices below of all personnel. If he overpowers us, there's little chance he can defeat the rest of ANBU."

Shikaku nodded. "Well, in here, that's three S-Rank jounin, your ANBU guard, you yourself, Hokage-sama… and you three advisors."

Homura and looked apologetic as he broke in. "It wouldn't be wise to keep all the advisors here, Hiruzen-san. If, Kami-sama forbid, he _did_ kill you, we'll need someone who can retain authority. Allowing him to eliminate the elder council _and_ the current Hokage…"

"I see, yes. You three advisors are permitted to leave. ANBU Goat," the ANBU in question blurred to the floor, "Report to ANBU headquarters. In ten minutes, I want all the ANBU available in the bunkers under the office. Get a Hyuuga to find out when the office's barrier activates – and if it deactivates with my chakra signature missing, all the ANBU need to set up the strongest barrier they can, and engage Yūrei."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." The operative blurred away.

"I think I will remain, Hokage-sama," Danzō said calmly, earning a raised eyebrow from the leader.

The other two advisors exchanged glances. Homura coughed. "We'll go, even as shinobi, we're nowhere near his level. Excuse us."

The two trailed out and down to the civilian bunkers while Hiruzen gave Danzō an appraising look. "Are you sure you're up for this?"

Danzō huffed impatiently. "You forget I was in your team when we were younger, Hiruzen. My body's just as capable as yours."

"Hmm," was all the Kage responded with. The leader's eyes trailed over the men.

Shikaku would be very dangerous in this enclosed area, but Inoichi would be limited, as seals that hid the chakra's presence made mental targeting risky. At best it'd miss, at worse it'd destroy the brain attempting to connect. Best if the Yamanaka steered clear of ninjutsu usage.

Ibiki was an ANBU Captain, he would be capable of holding his own. Kakashi knew how Yūrei worked to a larger extent than anyone else here.

Danzō was an oddity. He wasn't the type to let his body fall to pieces, but nevertheless he had lost an eye and had aged considerably. He was more than capable of recognising that, though; and whether Hiruzen liked it or not, he had used Yūrei for his own missions, and probably was kept up to date on his genuine ANBU missions, making him also familiar with Yūrei on a second, possibly first-hand basis. He had recently been punished for his going behind Hiruzen's back – this could be a suck-up attempt or even an assassination attempt in disguise, planning to turn on Hiruzen with Yūrei's help.

Hmm… that was unlikely. Even if he planned for Yūrei to take down everyone in the Tower _and_ the elite ANBU managed to do it, that left all the remaining ANBU outside, and even a Sannin couldn't take all of them at once. ANBU were the well-oiled machinery, and they worked together easily; in seconds grasping allies and enemies flaws and strengths alike.

Even if Root was a force to be reckoned with, they couldn't take Hiruzen's ANBU as well, and with a few Hyuuga in Hiruzen's ANBU, they wouldn't be taken by surprise. Even Root including Yūrei would not be sufficient to take down all of them; and it would definitely draw the attention of all the nearby jounin. Danzō would have to abandon his plan if it truly was assassination.

More to the point, a civil war/coup attempt like that, using Root and/or Yūrei would cripple Konoha's military force, and Danzō wasn't the sort of person to allow that. He may not have liked Hiruzen having the hat, but his only assassination attempt was when the Sarutobi was out of the village and the perpetrator could remain questionable. An overt internal battle would arouse the attention of nearby villages, and Taki was due to arrive in a few days.

It wasn't Danzō's style. He wanted to _slip_ into the seat of Hokage as a side occurrence, as an unnoticed consequence that few people looked into. He didn't want to _jump_ into it in plain sight of all of the Hokage's loyal shinobi.

Hiruzen nodded, stepping into another room to change into battle dress under his robes. "Hound, Yūrei is watching Sasuke and Yasha currently. I need you to approach him and inform him his mission is cancelled. Escort him back to the Tower. Do that in ten minutes."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," Kakashi replied shortly, working on automatic.

Everyone in the room was unknowingly thinking the same thing: This wouldn't be pretty.

* * *

Yūrei frowned, rubbing his arm where a small scar could be found. It was a nervous tic of sorts; when he was in deep thought, he tended to rub it. Pre-ANBU, he used to rub his forehead, but with the mask on, that interfered with his line of sight and left him open to an attack. His perceptivity was very high, but one didn't survive in ANBU by taking even _slight_ chances. He might have no questions gambling on it with a good deal of money, but Yūrei wouldn't gamble on it with his life.

Hmm, a figure approaching. Oh, it was Hound mask, so Kakashi… in ANBU gear, even though he hadn't done an ANBU mission for months now. Typical, they sent someone he partnered with often – they could only send one person after all. If they sent someone in aggressively, that was the stupidest mistake possible – _no one_ went against a fuuinjutsu user on his turf.

"Yūrei-san, the Hokage would like an immediate report. He's cancelling your mission." His tone was stiff and formal – he seemed like he was at least aware of what was going on. Good, it would have been harder for him if he had found out later. Yūrei did find it interesting Kakashi managed to hide his suspicion.

"Hai." Yūrei nodded, outwardly seeming his usual picture of a perfectly professional ninja, and the two blurred to the Hokage Tower. Midway, Yūrei dispelled the shadow clone in the hospital that was watching a recovering Sasuke.

When he arrived, the Third Hokage was facing out the window, the rest of the men in the room behind him and facing inwards, watching Yūrei like a hawk. Danzō, as Yūrei expected, and alongside that – Shikaku, Inoichi, Ibiki. _'Ah, the Compromised Command protocol. Of course, that would get Danzō's attention, someone with smarts thinking there's a good reason to usurp his authority. I should've thought of that sooner.'_

"Yūrei-san?" The Third asked calmly enough as Kakashi stood up from his kneel and went to the side of the room. "It has come to my attention you have incomplete records. May I ask why?"

_'Huh, he's not asking about the trust genjutsu. Well, missing records is a valid security flaw as well, albeit much less pressing. Obviously if I come from the Uchiha… hm. There's a cover story to be made there, but I haven't had time to work on it.'_

Yūrei had turned up without any records of birth, genin promotion, genin team, chuunin promotion, jounin promotion… etc. None of those events were there. It was a definite security flaw, even for ANBU members.

The point of the members was no one knew who was in it and what they were doing, preventing identification and revenge attacks - but their members weren't taken out of records, as that would expose their being in ANBU by their absence.

His response was something to plant doubt, to gain more time. "I have destroyed them and erased all memories, as per your order, Hokage-sama."

Well, _that_ threw a spanner in the works, just like Yūrei had hoped. There were even a couple of sharp exhales. The Hokage blinked, turning to watch him. "Do you have a record of my order?"

"It was a verbal command, Hokage-sama," Yūrei explained.

Hiruzen sighed, knowing that there was no scenario where he wouldn't have produced some written documentation of an action like that, at least acknowledging that it happened, if not any details of what he was covering up. But since he might have to fight Yūrei himself, he had to remove the trust-breaking genjutsu. If he went along with Yūrei's bluff, Yūrei would have to expose his mind. "Fine, then, will you allow Inoichi to check the validity of your statement?"

"I have placed mind seals preventing external access…" Yūrei answered shortly, trailing off in thought. If he played his cards right… he'd be home free. But with all these distinguished guests… producing a cover story at this stage seemed unlikely to happen. Stalling would only get him so far. If this didn't work, he'd be restrained, and he needed to get a genjutsu in.

_'But Inoichi's here too…'_ Yūrei's eye didn't flicker to him, but it wanted to. The blond would have the best mental defences, and a pre-warning that genjutsu may be used, so the more intensive defences could be up as well. He could escape the genjutsu's full effects… but it _was_ a powerful genjutsu.

If it failed, Yūrei wouldn't be able to redo it, for at least a week or so while the first eye he used a week ago recovered, and by that time Inoichi would have not only negated its effects, but _reversed_ them, drawing attention to what Yūrei had tried to prevent attention being drawn to: Yasha. That would be unacceptable. It would be better if Inoichi was incapacitated and only the others heard the command. Inoichi wouldn't get involved with Yasha in most circumstances, and there was an easy way to get the mind-reader closer…

Yūrei coughed lightly. "Hokage-sama, am I to understand you want me to show Inoichi that memory?"

"Um, yes, if you would," the leader confirmed.

"Hai. Inoichi-san?"

The blond man hesitantly strode towards him, putting his hand on the black mask but finding not only no chakra presence coming from it, but the mask wouldn't budge. Probably more seals. "Err, Yūrei-san? Your mask?"

"Hai." Yūrei smiled behind his mask. "Hokage-sama, for what it's worth, I was completely loyal to Konoha and will be should I meet with you again."

Inoichi only had time to widen his eyes fractionally as the assassination expert's bug-sized shadow clone appeared in full size behind him, knocking him out with one swift kick before dispelling with a small puff of dense smoke.

All bar two of the men made eye contact with Yūrei in the next few seconds, but the genjutsu didn't even require that. Yūrei's Mangekyō spun as he pulled out his katana, deflecting Ibiki's kunai as Shikaku's shadow connected with his own. Yūrei sent chakra into a small seal on his right hand as Ibiki grunted against his iron grip.

A good two miles away, a duplicate seal vibrated, and a clone cancelled the Summoning seal, the real Yūrei reappearing by it.

Yūrei glanced around quickly as his eye shot searing pain down his face and neck while the memories of the shadow clone returned. He was back outside the village barrier; no one had seen him exit, nor his clone use a summon, nor the original returning.

He smirked, rolling up the scroll, even as his eye began to close itself. "Time to run."

* * *

For a good three seconds after Yūrei vanished, longer than the actual conflict took, no one moved a muscle, silently watching.

"He's vanished," Ibiki broke the silence, his tone slightly awed. The amount of strength in that one arm was shocking. Yūrei hadn't even used both arms with his sword, but he managed to parry both of Ibiki's arms' strength without appearing to strain himself.

"That was a Summoning seal." The Third frowned. The tang of chakra was similar and the Office had a web of anti-momentum barrier seals around it; the only escape was Hiraishin or a summon. Thankfully, it wasn't the former, or Yūrei would be near unbeatable. "He went to a location, had himself summoned to inside the village, went to this office, then cancelled the summon, sending him back to his pre-summoned location. He could be anywhere in a five mile radius now."

Still, even if that was rather clever of Yūrei, cancel-able Summoning seals had limited time and distance radius. They could only be maintained for so long, particularly if it was a shadow clone's chakra, which was likely, as most of ANBU were gathered below.

Yūrei must have been warned about the impromptu meeting beforehand – with genjutsu, it was very possible that anyone who had shaken off the trust had sent Yūrei's genjutsu chakra back to him. A lot of interrogations used genjutsu to make a horrible environment and retrieve information in one hit.

"Should I look for him?" Hound offered, adrenaline still blasting through his system despite his inability to find an opening to move on Yūrei. Ibiki all but _threw_ himself at Yūrei, probably to protect the Hokage from any attacks, but it proved unnecessary.

Hiruzen shook his head. He hadn't moved during that whole attack; with Inoichi and his desk in the way, his options were too limited. If Yūrei was hostile, he would have gone for the Third Hokage immediately, making any aggression pointless. "No, he has no scent, even I can tell that. He's elite ANBU, and his specialty is infiltration and thus, covert escape. Trying to track him if he's outside the barrier now would be near futile."

The Third Hokage lit his pipe and took a long puff. "When Inoichi wakes, he needs to know the trust genjutsu's still in place on me, I'll need him to investigate it, see if it can break or if it's an unfamiliar design."

Ibiki tutted, tucking the kunai back with some disappointment. It had a deep cut in it now, that sword was pretty sharp. "How did you know Yūrei wasn't hostile before he took down Inoichi?"

Hiruzen fixed the T&amp;I head with a sharp look. "Ibiki, you heard Hound. The man was a monster in assassination, and with his skill set, he's someone who would give Minato a run for his money. No one died as he appeared in the office. Thus, he wasn't hostile."

Shikaku whistled softly again, finally stepping out of his stance. "I was holding him in place, but he didn't even attempt to move. Guess we got lucky."

"If he's loyal as he says – why did he use a genjutsu to gain access to Konoha?" Ibiki asked bluntly. "And it makes no sense he'd keep the people in this room alive if he's working for anyone else – he had an escape route. A simple explosive seal with enough whammo would've cut Konoha's military strength by a third."

The men exchanged glances. Then Shikaku shrugged. "We don't know his motives. He may be working for Konoha, but he has his own agenda and with that genjutsu ability, we can't ensure he doesn't enforce it. He's too volatile to want even as an ally."

"I'll have to go over all his missions, make sure he actually acted as he said." Hiruzen sighed to himself. "Goat, report to the ANBU, get them to cover the village in squads of four. Remember he has no chakra presence so it will be very difficult to find him."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

* * *

"Derp," Yasha mumbled to himself, hitting his head against a wall outside a convenience store. "Derp. Derp. Derrrrppppp."

His brain had stopped working, and for some reason he had a bout of nausea for a while. Too tired. He just didn't want to think about anything. He wanted to just die… no, drop into a coma and forget everything. There were too many worries.

_'Ahhh. Sweet sleeeeep…'_ he thought dreamily. A passing black-haired woman gave him an odd look as she went into the shop, and he rubbed his forehead and decided to get to work before Keito did something stupid back at kiddie base.

_'Kiddie base. I should call it that from now on,' _he thought, making him grin as he strode into the shop._ 'Let's see, I need lots of bento and some easily-stove-cooked items, so stir-fry ingredients as well and some eggs – eggs won't keep for long if they're not chilled up, and I don't have a fridge. Might have to get one… nah, Naruto won't peg that I'm using the one at our house, he'll just assume I'm eating a lot or something, assuming he's even observant enough to notice. And Michiko wants strawberries. She told me like eight times, I don't exactly want her on my case. Might as well get a few snack foods and a few chocolate bars too. Because chocolate is my religion and the kids must worship it.'_

As he was heading out, not even attempting to calculate what the cost would be over months with his deceased brain cells, his gaze went on some counter-side manga books, and he frowned, before shrugging. Might as well grab some for Keito, he himself would go nuts if he just had kiddie hiragana books to read.

Most of the manga were rated teen, but the kid had just been through a massacre of all his family and friends. He was mature enough to handle it.

Yasha briefly considered the fact he was twelve, not quite a teen, but his bloodline made the shop owner just rush through the checkout process so he didn't have to worry. Bah, he was mature enough himself anyway, having been in the middle of the massacre and plotting around the greatest minds in Konoha.

He briefly wondered if Itachi had been this mature naturally or if it had been forced out of him by the high demands of his kin as clan heir. Sasuke probably got it easier because he wasn't the heir – he had time to grow normally. Which explained why he could spend the full length of time in the Academy without being hustled through the ranks.

Not like that had worked out in the end. It was generally a psycho family, apart from the mother. The father liked to start coups and the elder son had a habit of mass murder. There was a good precedent for Sasuke to follow.

Yasha noted he needed to read up on child psychology. He could shrug it off and pretend he was doing it for Naruto's sake. That kid may well be traumatised, but he was used to bottling that up. Probably not a good thing with a Bijū inside your mind.

For now, it was time to head back to the kids… again. One month before graduation.

* * *

**AN:** Why did this chapter take three weeks? Yūrei got in a fight with me, would you believe it? He wanted to get involved with Kakashi and help train the kids, but unfortunately Orochimaru's involvement would not permit it.

Yūrei convinced me to delay the parts he was booted out of Konoha, until a few months post-grad, but I couldn't write the chapter otherwise. There was simply a complete lack of creative energy from that universe timestream, so I had to switch it back to what I wrote originally: his highly-trained badass butt kicked out of Konoha. Kabuto loves Orochimaru too much for Yūrei to supersede that with genjutsu – at least, with subtle genjutsu, anyway; this is a Sannin we're dealing with, the one who found Sasori's seal, if you recall.

Yūrei isn't happy about it, but he's just going to have to deal, there is no universe in which he actually can stick around. Yūrei's fine ass may be heading back to Konoha at some point. Don't forget him; he's too self-willed a character to stay away from the plot for _too_ long, and Yasha intrigues him.

Also, this chapter featured development of the only-mentioned-in-passing "Shinigami" character. Shinigami, on the slight chance you don't know, is Japanese term for "death god" or "grim reaper", the former more accurate.

Next chapter may be straight into Academy graduation day; while the Uchiha brats are interesting, it's exhausting for Yasha, since he has knockout genjutsu you can guess how he handles most of the midnight waking-ups. "Is it feeding time? No? Zap."

He can't really use it on Etsuko, too risky given her very young age, so he's lucky she's a _quiet_ three-week-old.


	27. Shattering fantasies

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 27: Shattering fantasies_**

* * *

**AN: **There's a lot of things I have to do in the main universe I live in, so this part of the story will be developed slowly. I'm beta reader for three different fanfics here, I have five coding projects to work on, I'm teaching my brother how to develop in C#, I'm learning Japanese, yadda yadda.

Also, I'm going on holiday to Wales next Saturday. I may have more chapters to post, or less, depends how my holiday feelings goes – I might go full be-a-blob or be overwhelmed by creativity. Last time creativity happened, I developed a network protocol for decentralised artificial intelligence, spent a good period developing that after I got back.

We re-join the story after Yūrei has just done a bunk from Konoha. Yasha has a month of rearing several kids, some of which don't have functioning body clocks, it seems…

* * *

The elder council and the Third Hokage stared at the blond man, the Kage wearing a tired look

Inoichi Yamanaka hummed. "To remove Yūrei's influences, I will have to investigate the minds of the elder council, ANBU, and you yourself, Hokage-sama."

Saying that was easy, but unfortunately, there were several problems with that: the S-Rank secrets those people knew. Inoichi, being retired, wasn't too pleased to have to do mental changes for a _start_, but he was logical enough to know he was the only person who had the ability, and the trustworthiness. There were a few other families in the Yamanaka clan, but being clan head, he had the best chance of overcoming something as strong as Yūrei's genjutsu.

Whatever the genjutsu or seal was, it was good enough to let Yūrei escape the suspicions of many _extremely_ elite and paranoid people for close to two _decades_. It was probably the hardest thing to remove Inoichi would ever encounter.

What made things even more difficult was the fact Yūrei had been around most of ANBU. All the ANBU were under question – but judging from Kakashi's example, only the eldest, the ones who had been around the longest – and thus had seen the most S-Ranks – were likely to have genjutsu on them.

"Leaving it on these people, who are crucial to the operation, is out of the question," The Third Hokage said calmly. "Even with written and vocal instructions not to trust Yūrei, it wouldn't hold. The genjutsu is simply too powerful; we've confirmed that amongst ourselves."

Danzō frowned. "But investigation of all these people, with all the S-Ranks they hold, is also out of the question. The amount of crippling information Inoichi-san would see would be simply ridiculous. The point of ANBU is _covert _ops – the fact someone not even in ANBU should see the secrets within operatives, is simply out of the question as well."

"There are only three options, gentlemen and lady. Either I go into everyone infected and release them, _assuming_ I can even do it; or you leave most of ANBU and the administration of the village up against someone who can sweet-talk their way out of anything if they just waltz into the village; _or_… you kill Yūrei."

"Why not question him?"

Danzō coughed. "At this point it's safe to assume if he can remove the genjutsu he placed, it is so subtle he could just overlay another one. It's pointless."

Inoichi gave a slow nod to the war hawk. "We do have one advantage, though; Yūrei considers himself loyal to Konoha for whatever reason. Being he couldn't stay in the room, what he said was not a genjutsu-enforced statement, making it pointless for him to say it at all, unless he actually believed it…"

"We can lure him back to us easily," Danzō realised.

_"Probably,"_ Koharu corrected.

"But if he is loyal… what's the point in having him killed?" the Third Hokage asked, wrinkles forming on his face as he leant on his hand.

Danzō's mind was muddled. He had kept the seal on to think… it wasn't clear thinking, every few seconds he was jolted violently enough to disturb his chakra flow, but it was unbiased thinking.

He could release someone who was ridiculously strong and had control over most of Konoha's military forces into the wild, knowing they thought they were loyal to Konoha… like Itachi, but far worse and far less controllable. Unlike Itachi, there was no younger brother to threaten or that Konoha was taking care of.

Yūrei had no assets they could control. They had no way of threatening or bribing him.

If he was hostile, he could rip a quarter of Konoha apart with his own two hands. He knew the patrol routes, the barrier code, evacuation manoeuvres. He could plant bombs in the evacuation centres with hidden seals.

His broadcasting of S-Ranks he knew could topple it into a war from outrage at what they had done. Kumo and Iwa needed barely any motive to be enraged, not to mention a shedload of minor villages who Konoha had taken advantage of under Danzō's hand.

Yūrei's knowledge could cause the village to be attacked, possibly from multiple other major villages. At the very least he could cause much more hostility, and bring Konoha into a large level of question., and he wouldn't even have to dirty his own hands with blood. The fact he had memory of some of those events would serve as proof enough – a single person with Yamanaka or lie-detection skills could seal Konoha's fate.

Or he could simply attack a Kage of another country, just like he had snuck into Takigakure, and let himself be discovered. With the Summon trick, he could escape, leaving behind a Konoha headband. That'd be enough.

_'But…'_ Danzō winced as the seal injected again, _'He's meant to be loyal. Can we really track someone when we have nothing to work off?'_

Homura spoke up. "With the skills he's displayed, and his lack of presence, it's safe to say he can't be tracked. If we do come across him, how are we to attack him?"

Danzō exhaled sharply, disdainfully. "He's an assassination master, a sealing expert, he has Sharingan, and no presence. Only a full team knowing who they're up against has a chance."

"It's a Flee on Sight order then," the Hokage sighed.

"The last person who had that was the Fourth," Homura noted with a sigh.

A small pause fell. Inoichi waited calmly. He might be very busy in the next few months, depending on the decisions made here.

Danzō drummed his fingers. "There may be another solution if we use seals. Like this one." He tapped his arm. "If Jiraiya, me, and you yourself, Hokage-sama, work on this, it might be possible to have an auto-injection seal activate when Yūrei is nearby. It'll serve as both a warning beacon and a genjutsu break."

"Unlikely. He's a ghost, we have no chakra to work from. If he revealed his face publically as a civilian, it'd be just as difficult to identify him, since no one in ANBU ever recognised him."

"Unless he wears his mask, no one could even recognise him in public."

"Hiding in the shadows of ANBU…" Danzō muttered thoughtfully.

The Third Hokage leant forward. "Inoichi, I'll be bringing some ANBU before you. It's a fact that you have not only served a full service as a loyal Konoha shinobi, but also a member of T&amp;I for a good period. Not trusting you would be ludicrous at this point."

Danzō froze as he noticed something. _'Hold on, if Inoichi goes through the minds of everyone in the Third's ANBU, Root will be excluded. If my Fū Yamanaka can't perform on the level needed, that'll leave the security hole just in Root ANBU. I can't allow that._

_'Not to mention, my activities with Root will be exposed if Inoichi goes through my memories. I can't allow that either. Although the Hokage already knows I have been giving my own missions, he's furious already, and certainly Inoichi doesn't need to know. Maybe Fū can seal some of them away, in a way Inoichi won't be able to crack open. Damnit Yūrei, you just exposed Root in a painfully obvious way, and I've only just realised it.'_

"I'll leave now, Third Hokage-sama," Danzō said calmly. "I need to see if I can find records of Yūrei."

The Third nodded, dismissing him, and the bandaged man stepped outside, frowning darkly. If only he had something he knew Yūrei wanted to protect here in Konoha, some leverage he could exploit…

In his brain, a tiny neuron circuit of foreign chakra a few millimetres in size activated, stripping Yasha from his thoughts about Yūrei's weaknesses.

* * *

A red sky and black clouds.

He remembered it. Each second, a genjutsu, that terrible scene replaying. His aunt and uncle cut down. His neighbours. That nice policeman who patrolled near his house that he liked.

Finally his parents, cut down by his brother's blade.

Sasuke's brain kept looping it, attempting to forget but knowing it shouldn't. The conflict of wills tore him apart. His mind was confused, his thoughts scattered, and this was a dream caused by a three-day genjutsu of pain and turmoil.

He had retreated into himself a long time ago. No matter what he tried to look at, he was stuck, surrounded by death and murder.

He remembered it.

He didn't want to.

He wanted to die. But he was too scared to die.

He wanted to fight. But he was too weak to get close to Itachi.

His brother was his best friend. He adored him above every other person he knew.

His brother was a murdering psychopath. He had never loved him back. He was just testing him.

Suddenly a bolt of pain stung his head, making him gasp. He turned to see…

Death stood behind him. His slitted eyes glowed dark red, a demonic red, a hypnotising, repulsive, red. The rest was weaving black strands, cloaked in dimly reflective darkness.

Death held out his hand, and Sasuke flinched. He could be reached out and touched from here.

Death sighed in a rather _human_ way, speaking calmly. "Sasuke, this is Yasha, your classmate. You need to wake up."

Sasuke blinked, knowing without looking the red sky and the memories of the Tsukuyomi loop flickered into blackness briefly around him.

Death smiled slightly, as a rather human expression of boredom crossed its face, its hand still outstretched.

Sasuke frowned, glancing back at the scene, where Itachi was laying waste to his aunt and uncle. Was this a trap? Had his brother gone further than the three days of hell?

"I don't trust you," Sasuke said bluntly, his brain too sluggish with fear and turmoil to care about tact.

The horrific figure didn't react. After a couple of seconds, though, it spoke again. "Sasuke, this is Yasha, your classmate. You need to wake up," Death repeated, his hand still outstretched. Black fog leaked off the skin, as it did the rest of his body.

Sasuke noticed Death began to appear to be something else. Yasha was in there. He didn't know how he knew, but his brain just _knew_, like most dreams were.

Sasuke liked Yasha. He was perhaps the only person near his level in his class. He looked at him with admiration, at his ability to strike fear for no reason.

Sasuke had liked and admired Itachi as well.

"I don't trust you," he repeated.

A silence followed. Behind him, Itachi cut down three people and a figure jumped past, skimming the edge of his senses, two Sharingan blazing. A ghost. Sasuke had wondered who that was, who was skimming past, why neither Itachi nor the ghost turned on each other.

Sasuke turned away from Death, as Itachi approached his house. His parents were inside. His mother was cooking tomato teriyaki, as she had been all the three days, all the months she was cut down in. His father was reading a scroll in the study, just as he always had been, poring over it.

Sasuke could yell at his father, yell warnings, and his father would react. But never quickly enough.

It was part of what made this torture. The people who Sasuke could warn were still killed. He felt helpless.

But now… there was an anomaly.

As Itachi opened the front door of his house, a blood-smeared katana in his hand, Sasuke wondered if Death would be worse. Just before Itachi plunged his sword into his mother's heart, Sasuke spun and grabbed Death's cold hand.

The black fog billowed outwards, consuming the room, consuming the world. His mother was never stabbed that time.

It was all darkness.

A darkness of nothingness, a barrier from his memories. Relief began to course through him, and in response, white cracks appeared, splintering across the blanket of darkness.

Sasuke smiled slightly as the remnants of the dream construct shattered into pieces.

* * *

"…activity spiking slightly."

"It resumed normality five days ago, nothing came of it."

"Well, we couldn't use medicine, his system had just suddenly come out of shock, and we didn't want to throw it back."

_'Oh, I'm in a hospital. That makes sense…'_

"Yeah, we haven't seen a trauma case like this before. What did they call it?"

"… they haven't called it anything, just said it was a strong genjutsu. Itachi cast it."

"You're documenting all of this, right?"

"Of course. This is a first case scenario of someone being in a torture genjutsu that extended that long. The Yamanaka could only _guess_ at what was happening."

"It was a dream state he was in, though. He probably moved after genjutsu, even if it was only for a while."

Non-committal hum. "Did he have any visitors?"

"The Hokage, civilians heads, and _that boy_." The last phrase was _hissed_ unpleasantly. Even barely awake, Sasuke was disturbed by it.

"The Uzumaki?"

"No, his _friend_."

"Ah."

Scribble, scribble.

Sasuke frowned. _'__**His friend**__… that has to be Yasha. Are the nurses scared of Yasha too? He __**was**__ here after all?'_

He opened his eyes, blinking at the harsh white light. Why everything in hospitals was glaring white he'd never understand. What if a patient had damaged their eyes?

"He's awake!" A nurse was leaning over him in an instant.

Sasuke groaned. "Hai."

He attempted to sit up, only for two nurses and the doctor to push him back.

"Stay down. We'll need to check you for lasting damage. Nurse! Prepare an ECG range scanner!"

"No, I need to go." Sasuke insisted, struggling against the firm hands. The man's grip barely budged – he was probably well used to restraining shinobi. People who saw war did not enjoy the feeling of being trapped – someone who had just emerged from torture especially, although the thing on Sasuke's mind was not the torture, but the unsuspected person who had appeared in it.

"Get the Hokage!" the doctor called outside.

At this, Sasuke stopped struggling, as his discombobulated mind decided that seeing the Hokage would be a good idea right now. He wanted to hear what the man had to say. He doubted it would be worth anything, as far as comfort or something for his mind to dwell on, but he was interested how the leader would go about it.

A personal apology about failing to protect the Uchiha? An apology about Itachi _– blade shoved through his mother's heart, her shocked gasp, pain and betrayal –_ how that man would be talked about, or would the topic be skirted around… Kami, those flashbacks. Sasuke winced.

He wasn't sure if what the Hokage would say would be significant, but he was interested to hear it anyway. In the future, it would be worth remembering. If the Third supported his goal to kill Itachi, eschewed it, or stayed neutral… that would affect just how attached Sasuke became to this cursed village.

Also, Yasha. He wanted to find out about Yasha. How he had been in his dream? Was it really some odd combination of his subconscious desiring an escape and the one remaining person he looked up to?

Or rather – the one person whose strength he respected. To him, the Hokage was just an old man. His position may deserve respect, but he himself came across just like the Uchiha elders – full of themselves and their own apparent wisdom, with about as many displays of strength as a brick wall.

He'd never seen the Hokage fight, and the man was incredibly passive from what he'd read. A passive leader was not someone the Uchiha tended to respect.

* * *

The Third arrived promptly after the person was sent to fetch him. Sasuke filed that fact away and waited for the man to speak.

"Sasuke-kun. I'm sorry for your loss."

"What's become of Itachi?" came his voice, dull and lifeless. Sasuke was a bit surprised, and impressed at it, to be honest. Another bout of flashbacks made him wince.

The Hokage turned away, looking out the window, even though Sasuke was making no attempts to look at him. "He's fled the village and been marked an S-Rank missing-nin."

_'S-Rank…'_ Sasuke filed that away too.

"I'm going to kill him." The lifelessness in his tone remained constant. It was a flat fact.

The Hokage said nothing, his eyes trailing the leaves of trees opposite the hospital grounds. "What did he tell you he did it for?"

Sasuke slowly blinked. Was that important? Was the _why_ important, or just the fact he _did_ it? "He said it was to make him stronger."

The Hokage wished he could smoke to relieve his frazzled senses, but not in a hospital with a traumatised kid nearby. There was something _scrutinising_ about that boy, like he was lapping up details of what was happening, despite his beyond despondent appearance. _'So, that's Itachi's game. Vengeance as a motivator. That's… well, the only motivator he __**can**__ use with what he did. I suppose if he goes straight to the truth, Sasuke might well turn on the village. There's no way you can tell a kid, even someone with intellect like Sasuke, that an entire clan had to die. Damn you, Danzō.'_

"He said he killed everyone… to test his strength. He said I wasn't…" Sasuke felt his anger and tears begin to boil, as his fists clenched tightly and shook, "that I wasn't even _worth_ killing. That I had to get stronger to come against him."

The Third Hokage was lucky to have a large amount of experience in hiding his emotions. Knowing Itachi had done it all to protect Sasuke, but had to appear and act as the complete opposite emotions… it was heart-breaking.

But he knew, he couldn't condemn Itachi for it too much in his talks with Sasuke. His conscience wouldn't allow that, the condemning of a loyal shinobi who _had_ prevented a civil war, and he didn't want the image that Konoha had no care for Itachi once he left, should (Kami-sama forbid) Sasuke ever learnt the truth.

He had to word carefully. "Sasuke… I don't know what to say. What Itachi did was horrible. He is, however, something the village will deal with. As a missing-nin, Itachi is not just your enemy, but of all members of Konoha."

"Nothing would satisfy me more than his death at _my_ hand," Sasuke swore with a cold fury. Anyone else doing it would simply _not do_. He couldn't rest if Itachi dropped dead from some passersby.

The Hokage sighed tiredly. "As an S-Rank, not many people will look for him, he'll be beyond their strength. And of those who do, they may not overcome him. Don't do something you'll regret in your haste."

"Will Konoha make me stronger?"

The Hokage hesitated. He didn't want Sasuke to treat Konoha as some way to gain power. He wouldn't get emotionally attached; no emotional bonds would mean barely any attachment, and in his effort to take down Itachi, Sasuke would go missing-nin to any unsavoury person offering more training than Konoha would. "It will. Maybe you'll learn about how to _use_ that power, if you're not willing to follow Itachi's footsteps and do _anything_."

There was subtle undertones of a threat and a warning in his tone.

"Hmph." Sasuke moved his sluggish eyes to the figure of the Kage briefly. He had a point. Following Itachi's footsteps was a bit… stupid.

Two questions remained: that ghostly figure that never engaged Itachi nor vice versa… and Yasha's presence in his dreams. He paused. _'How could I put it? "Itachi showed me a person ignoring him during his massacre?"'_

"Was there anyone else there? On _that night_?"

Cue another flood of flashbacks making him flinch again.

The Hokage tensed slightly. "What makes you say that?"

Sasuke gritted his teeth, trying to avoid the flashbacks. "_He_… showed me … when he killed everyone… and I saw someone run past, ignoring him. Only for a second. Like a ghost. He had two Sharingan."

_'A ghost? Yūrei?' _The Hokage racked his brains. Should he admit Yūrei was there, confusing Itachi's 'I'm only doing it for power' motive? What was Itachi thinking when he showed Yūrei to Sasuke? If Itachi had showed Yūrei, then Itachi must have expected Sasuke to ask about it. The Hokage had no choice.

"There was another man, an ANBU operative whose codename is Ghost. Itachi enlisted his help as well."

Sasuke frowned, his eyebrows moving down a fraction. "What's happened to him?"

"Like Itachi, he's become a missing-nin. Also an S-Rank."

"I'll kill him as well," Sasuke snapped.

The Hokage hesitated. He knew Itachi had done all this to protect Sasuke, but whether Yūrei would share that desire to protect Sasuke was another matter. If Sasuke went against Yūrei by some twist of fate, there was no confirmation he couldn't just kill the kid. An ANBU captain and the Hokage _personally_ knew how ridiculously strong he was from the missions he had completed, and the elite he had managed to trick, in plain sight no less.

And the fact he had escaped everyone in the village with a plan that was cunningly simple. Despite the Hokage's best efforts, Yūrei's trail had never even appeared; he had no scent to work off anyway. No one could impersonate him, because he had no presence. He would stand in front of you and your brain would think _he's not there, it's a mirage_. No scent, no movement noise, no fluttering sounds from the clothes, no body heat, something that took a lot of practice (and most likely seals too). There was nothing to suggest his presence, so how could they track him without something to match against?

But how could Hiruzen stop Sasuke going against Yūrei? If he made out Yūrei to be stronger than Itachi, the 'I'm doing it to gain power' motive was well and truly unusable. If he did the opposite, and made Itachi the more powerful one, Sasuke would head for Yūrei _first_, to take down the easier opponent.

Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't do anything. He tutted, standing up.

"If Yūrei ever presents himself before any member of Konoha, they have orders to take him down to question him. Why he sided with Itachi is still unknown. If you kill him outright, we'll never know, and you'll never know either."

Sasuke grunted, and the village leader sighed, turning to leave, knowing his hands were tied.

"Hokage-sama, who is Yūrei? What does he look like?" Sasuke asked, the 'sama' feeling weird on his lips.

"No one knows what he looks like, bar he has two Sharingan, and hides all aspects of his physical presence. You can see him, but he feels off to your senses."

Sasuke blinked. He had thought It… _That Man _had capacity to hide himself, but whoever Yūrei was, even the Hokage didn't know what he looked like.

Still, he was an Uchiha, that was enough to go off. There was only a few people who looked like that. Bar Yasha. Speaking of which…

"Was Yasha there?"

The Hokage would've spun around at the suggestion, but he knew better. "Not that I know of. Why? Did you see him too?"

"No. That Man never showed him to me. He was in my dreams, afterwards, though."

"Ah. He tried to break whatever hold was on you using a bloodline technique." The Hokage neglected to say it was obvious Yasha had _succeeded_; massive trauma like that would leave someone comatose for days on end, probably weeks – that was what the doctors had predicted. Without Tsunade being here, they couldn't hope for better, but Yasha's uncertain attempts had apparently worked.

What would happen if… no, it was going to happen anyway… he couldn't change where Sasuke would go to in the genin teams, thanks to the council, and that meant… the Hokage sighed as he stepped out, putting facts together mentally. "I'll get Yasha for you."

"Thanks," Sasuke muttered, unable to muster eagerness even though some distant part of him was enthralled by the idea.

The Third sighed as he arrived back in his office. The massacre had happened five days ago. "Lion, inform Yasha Sasuke has woken up."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," came the reply from the figure as he flickered to the floor and then out the window.

* * *

Yasha held a large mug of coffee between both hands, looking very tired. _'Damnit, Etsuko. That was the second night she's had problems sleeping._

_'Not "problems" as in "oh dear, she's hungry, feed her and she'll go back to sleep". No, this was some problem she couldn't express and neither me nor Keito nor the baby books could work out. It wasn't food, gas, dirty nappy, too much activity, or too little._

_'All the baby book said was "it was normal". How the __**hell**__ was it normal? What kind of half-arsed evolution would lead to babies making wailing sounds during nocturnal hours for no discernible reason? Was evolution trying to get the parents killed from attracted predators or tired and inattentive carers?!'_

He took a long sip of the coffee, watching Naruto bounce around talking about something at rocket pace. Naruto didn't seem to notice that Yasha wasn't listening, but Yasha knew better.

He twitched as the ANBU appeared in the kitchen, making the blond jump with a shriek and knock down the pans on the cooker with a loud crash.

The lion-masked ANBU didn't even flinch. "Yasha, the Hokage wishes to inform you Sasuke is awake."

Yasha nodded slightly, and the ANBU vanished.

"What?!" Naruto called, his ears ringing, but the ANBU had already gone.

Yasha's tired mind began to speed up again. More manipulation was at hand. Sasuke must have requested him, which meant he had a good deal of trust. Maybe that mind link and trying to wake him up actually _worked?_

Nahhh… the odds of that were _tiny_. Yasha had been simply attempting something, an experiment of sorts. The Death Release user chugged some more sugar-laden coffee, but it was too hot to drink without sweating everywhere, so he had to deflect Naruto's questioning.

"Who was that?!" Naruto yelped.

"Who was what?" Yasha repeated slowly.

"That ANBU! I saw an ANBU!" Naruto insisted, pointing wildly at where the Lion ANBU had been.

"What ANBU? Are you daydreaming again?" Yasha asked blankly, drinking more coffee.

_"Nanniiiii?!"_

Naruto was very confused by the time Yasha left, a book on kanji stuck in his hand.

* * *

Sasuke blinked as Yasha stepped in, the other boy wearing a scowl that faded as he took in Sasuke's state. "So you recovered, Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke shrugged slightly. "I guess. I saw you in my dreams."

Yasha smirked, his tone instantly becoming teasing. "Ah, _that'll_ get the rumour mill started."

Sasuke cringed. _"Don't."_

Yasha strode over to the bed, plopping down on one side with his legs dangling off. "I had to check on you every so often, you know, wipe away the lipstick stains from your face, from all your fangirls' visits."

"I said _don't!"_ The Uchiha threw his pillow at him full strength, which turned out to not be particularly strong after four days of inactivity. His lips twitched towards a smile though.

Yasha swatted the pillow out of the air with a grin. "Fine, fine." His gaze grew serious. "Yes, I used a technique on you to try and wake you up. Apparently you felt it."

"I kept…" Sasuke hesitated, "My brother… he killed the entire Uchiha clan… and used a genjutsu to keep showing me their deaths, over and over. When he knocked me out… I kept dreaming of it."

He glanced over at Yasha, who was gazing straight ahead at the door blankly, patiently waiting for him to go on. "That's when you turned up. You looked like… death."

"Forgot to put on my makeup, I guess," Yasha deadpanned.

Sasuke coughed, trying not to smile. "I mean it."

"My bloodline is Death Release, you know," Yasha told him calmly.

"That's good," Sasuke murmured distantly. "I'm going to have to kill my brother."

Yasha sighed, rolling his eyes to the heavens. "Sasuke, I'll tell you this… vengeance is a good motivator, but also a good way to blind yourself."

Sasuke blinked. He wasn't expecting that, Yasha acting wise, but it seemed to fit his personality. _'Yasha's a genius too, remember,' _he reminded himself.

He narrowed his eyes at the Uchiha lookalike. "So, will you help me?"

"Sure. In fact, I've already made plans that will help you." Yasha grinned, grabbing one of Sasuke's limp hands in both of his. His eyes glinted with something that scared Sasuke, and intrigued him. "If you want to see Itachi die, _I can make it happen_," he told Sasuke plainly. Like it was a simple fact. "My bloodline allows me to kill anyone very easily. Do you want to work with me?"

Sasuke grabbed his hand with his remaining one. "Hai. It's a deal. But I want to deal the finishing blow. And… there's someone else."

Yasha blinked, taken aback for once. "Who?"

"An ANBU called Yūrei. He wears a black mask and has no presence. He helped… _That Man_ kill my clan. Both of them are S-Rank missing-nin now."

"While us two live, your clan will carry on. I won't let you die," Yasha assured him, firmly embedding himself into the role of an older brother figure for Sasuke. His mind was spinning. _'What? The instruction scroll never mentioned that. Did Zack send someone else as well? Or did my presence change something?'_

He turned back to Sasuke. "We'll get him as well. _Definitely._"

The two black-haired boys shared a look of firm resolve. Outside the window, a blond girl frowned. On the opposite end of the room, outside the door, a silver-haired medic pushed ill-fitting glasses up his nose, whilst the Goat ANBU beside the door watched him closely.

* * *

"Ssh-ssh-ssh…" Yasha crooned to still-ridiculously-small Etsuko. She continued to wail loudly, although it was only as loud as a stage whisper as Keito was squatting on the silencing seal, powering the seal with one hand and holding his chin up with the other.

Yasha was _exhausted_. It was only day ten and Etsuko had already lost her rag at just gone 2am. Keito was trying to stay awake and pump chakra into the silencing seal, but even for a dutiful Uchiha, he was only 8 years old, sleep and soon to be chakra deprivation was taking its toll on him.

Yasha could handle it better, but he was reaching the end of his rope. This was the third night running both of them had to get up at stupid o'clock. If Yasha powered the seal, he'd release KI, which would upset _all_ the kids.

The dog collars would be too dangerously strong for her undeveloped body, as would the knockout genjutsu.

But Etsuko just wouldn't stop. Her nappy was fine, she didn't want to move around, she didn't want to be left alone, she wasn't hungry, she should be tired… she obviously wasn't teething at only three weeks old… shit.

Yasha had racked his brains several times now and got nothing. Something was obviously upsetting her, but only Kami knew what. He had to pace back and forth, rubbing and patting her back soothingly as she cried over his shoulder. Eventually she'd cry herself to sleep, but damn…

The fuck was this shit?

She was _three weeks old_. Maybe closer to four now? She wasn't meant to be so unpredictable. She hadn't even formed a personality yet, she wasn't yet capable of forming words, yet she was just… GAH.

Yasha's pacing grew slightly faster, then reverted. He was losing his temper, but Keito couldn't do anything. She didn't want him either. He couldn't go outside, and thankfully she wasn't loud, but that was only due to the seal, and Keito had limited chakra. The fact Keito couldn't rest consistently each night was making his chakra regeneration sluggish as well. Soon he'd pass out from chakra exhaustion or just _general_ exhaustion. Both were likely at this point.

Yasha kept pacing for another five minutes, trying to calm himself down, still the same three-part shushing. If Etsuko hadn't been adorable and docile during the daytime, he wouldn't have gotten as far as he was now anyway.

Yasha wanted to go outside, but with the silencing seal set to a room, he was stuck here. In one room. With only dirty windows, the lights off, and dust on everything.

His legs were getting tired. It had been almost half A FUCKING HOUR.

"FUCK!" he yelled, making the baby jump and fling its arms out protectively to the sides, instantly silent. Keito jerked and lost his balance from his kneeling position.

The seal depowered and Yasha took a moment to see Etsuko's fearful expression, with wide eyes and an open mouth, the insects filtering the pitch-black room into a washed-out colour vision.

He felt a bit guilty at the pure fear on her face, along with an sadistic sense of 'got you back', and carried on rubbing her back. "Fuck, Keito, I can't take this shit."

Keito blinked. "What do you want _me_ to do?" he asked incredulously.

His tone ticked Yasha off. The older boy groaned, watching the baby's still-shocked expression. "Something that will get her to shut up. I'm gonna lose my rag if she starts crying again."

"Uh…" Keito blinked again, and scratched his head. "Pacifier?"

"I'll fuckin' pacify her…" Yasha muttered darkly as he plucked one from the nearby drawer. Etsuko gradually lost her fearful expression and started to whimper again, antagonised by fuck-knew-what.

Yasha glared at her, losing ferocity as she actually _reacted_. Even with her baby eyesight, in the dark, she reacted to his glare. "Huh," he muttered to himself, rubbing the pacifier on her cheek in an attempt to activate her rooting reflex. The girl frowned, turning and latching onto the pacifier, then immediately releasing it and starting to whimper again.

"Oh, don't start that **_shit_** again," he snapped tiredly, and she hesitated.

Then it was his turn to frown. She was behaving like she knew what he was saying. "Etsuko, do you know what I'm saying?"

She didn't react to that, other than starting to look more watery. _'She's reacting to my tone, not what I'm saying,'_ Yasha reasoned, frowning in thought._ 'I just shocked her, but it was probably my anger just as much as my volume.'_

He strode over to the sofa and laid down, laying her across the crock of his elbow as he opened the baby book, turning to the 'three to six weeks' chapter. "Colic? The fuck is _colic?!_ Some bullshit, that's what it is."

He sighed, rubbing her belly gently with one hand while awkwardly holding the book in the other hand. "Fuck, I hope she doesn't have colic."

Keito coughed. "Do you really have to swear so much, Yasha-sama?"

"Swearing was proven to prolong endurance of negative scenarios by increasing aggression against the circumstances," Yasha replied automatically, flipping pages to the colic chapter. It wasn't proven, but it was a theory he had.

Etsuko was thankfully still quiet, looking indecisive about whether to cry or not, with her mouth open. It would be comical if Yasha wasn't too drained to enjoy it.

"Colic… blah, blah… oh, it just means you cry a lot and need to stay upright, eh Etsuko-chan?" He wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled down at her, switching his tone to loving. "You little idiot."

"Aa," she replied half-indignantly.

"Aa your mum. And she's dead," Yasha informed her in a loving tone.

"NA!" she yelped, still looking watery.

He grinned back, waving his hand a few feet away. Her eyes followed it, and he frowned. She had suspiciously good night vision. His insects went into any person he was near for too long… that would explain things.

"I'm going to take her outside. It's the only thing I can think of."

Keito frowned, then waved his hands tiredly. "Fine, whatever. As long as you're not spotted."

"You can go back to bed. I won't come back until she's asleep."

"Alright." Keito dragged himself off as Yasha opened the front door, a blanket firmly wrapped around the baby.

Yasha watched Etsuko shiver slightly in the chilly air, but she was transfixed on staring at the stars. He sighed in relief at the lack of crying, thinking about what he was doing.

Carrying a baby in public wasn't too much of a problem; it was no secret Yasha had done some babysitting before. The only problem would come from the fact he was nowhere near Naruto. It was a good thing Naruto and him weren't monitored by ANBU. There wasn't a curfew in Konoha, either; that just left attracting the attention of patrols. They probably wouldn't note civilian and pre-genin movements, that would take an absolute _mountain_ of paperwork, but Yasha was well-known as a questionable character, thanks to his Henge in the middle of the Nara compound, dodgy origins, and dodgy bloodline. He would be noted.

The baby wouldn't be recognised as Uchiha, without taking a good few leaps of logic. She was too young to be recognisable that way, even if you were a chakra sensor. Plus, if his micro-insects _were _locked into her chakra, they would conceal it just like his was hidden.

But if Yasha had to do this on a regular basis… well, no, if he had to do it on a regular basis, no matter where he was, people would find it odd that a preteen was carrying a tiny baby outside on a regular basis at _any_ time, regardless of the place he carried.

He took the precaution of moving a couple of streets away, though, careful not to draw attention to the place where he was hiding the kids.

Being he was in a shifty part of town, he took to alleys to hide his movements, and one mugger came across him – took one look at him and let him pass by. Smart of him. Yasha's threatening aura was always multiplied in dark areas, after all, the fact he was carrying a baby down an alley and looked like he didn't care about the risks spoke a lot about his confidence as well.

Etsuko just stared at the clouds and stars, thumb stuck in her mouth. _'So much for the pacifier,'_ Yasha thought wryly.

It took just shy of twenty minutes for Etsuko to drift off, and Yasha's legs were aching by then.

Ino watched him vanish around the corner from a distance, almost not believing what she was seeing. A lot of her subconscious was warning her Yasha was a danger, even as he slowly bounced the tiniest and cutest baby she'd ever seen.

She wasn't sure what was going on _at all_. Her father had warned her against using Yamanaka techniques on both Yasha and Naruto, but no one else seemed to be aware of what was going on. He had been constantly tired at class, and being the nosy gossi- _information gatherer_ she was, she had investigated what he was doing late at night. This was the second day, and she was stumped.

He seemed to visit Naruto and live here, with a really small baby, possibly even more kids, but she'd never seen any sign of parents. The baby looked vaguely like him, though, both with black hair and dark eyes. Just the baby was so _cute._

Just like Yasha was. She held in a squeal.

"Why couldn't he just be up late _training_?"

"Talking to yourself?"

"EEP!" she jumped a foot into the air and spun around, just as his hand hit her forehead. Yasha watched her eyes roll back, and she slumped bonelessly to the concrete.

He scowled darkly. "This is a problem."


	28. Protecting the defenceless

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 28: Protecting the defenceless_**

* * *

**AN:** Spent _hours_ cleaning this up and rewording it, was just about to post it… and FanFiction login went down. _*rolls eyes*_

Previously on the story: Ino has done something dumb and spied on Yasha.

Yasha has his home in the darkness, and each shadow contains information for him, even though he doesn't (consciously) know it yet. So if someone gets too close, he gets uncomfortable. He followed a hunch just to be sure, and found Ino. Cue knockout genjutsu.

This chapter is an epic _18k_ words, my longest yet, the entirety of what I wrote/discovered while I was on holiday. A good part of it is minds attempting to outwit each other and hide information while revealing something, in a good imitation of L/Light's conflicts.  
Also, yes, taking care of babies in real life is _incredibly_ difficult. I hope you'll see that, as I write realism. It provides a very good contrast between Yasha's light and dark sides. He's careful with everything he does.

But will Yasha choose to kill her? Will he get away with it? And what's happening with Itachi?

Read on to discover! :D

* * *

Yasha returned to the house, passing the same mugger, who again just ignored the preteen carrying a baby. His thoughts were churning wildly, an unhealthy mixture of adrenaline and sheer exhaustion messing up his ability to think of a solution.

Ino.

Ino Yamanaka.

The mind-reading clan, and clan heiress, to be exact… not someone Yasha had wanted to get on his case. But apparently she had started _following_ him. Inoichi had been in the instruction scroll, and one detail Yasha had noted very clearly was _he was very protective of his daughter_.

So, what to do? Ino hadn't gone inside the house, and you couldn't look in the windows at all easily – with so many eyes, even though they were kids, she'd be noticed. If your family had been slaughtered, you'd be more observant; the kids didn't look fearful, but a couple were jumpy.

Yasha would've expected Ino to have come inside if she'd noticed no parents were around. She'd observe for hours, but eventually curiosity would win out.

She'd knock on the door, ask if he needed help babysitting, where the babies were… but no, she had just stalked him. Did she know where the kids' place was? Yep, she was so close to it, that seemed likely. Which meant she could lead Inoichi back to there.

Which meant the Hokage would find out, which meant Danzō would, which meant Orochimaru would, hell… _everyone_ would find out.

Could he kill her?

Yasha frowned at the thought as he unlocked and stepped back into the kids' place, still cradling a tiny Etsuko, who looked just _adorable_ asleep. The drool stain on his shoulder wasn't quite as adorable, though.

He laid her down carefully on her back, rolling the blanket over her. Had to be on the back, or she might get 'cot death'. He glanced at the thermostat he had pinned to the wall – 17 degrees, good, within the margin. Feet were at the base of the futon so she couldn't wiggle downwards and suffocate. Babies were _super_ complicated once you started reading all the help books.

Killing Ino was possible. Ino would be investigating him for gossip reasons, and Inoichi certainly wouldn't approve of her being out for _that_, which meant she snuck out on a different reason. She wouldn't tell any of her friends, or they'd sneak out with her and it wouldn't let her be queen of the gossip. It'd be 'general news' instead of 'defer to Ino for her excellent news sources'.

So, no one knew Ino was out, who she was watching or what she was doing. She wouldn't write a note just in case she died, there was no way she would have thought she might _die_ gossip-hunting… she had no one knowing where she was.

This was a dodgy part of town. ANBU didn't patrol here frequently, since the Uchiha Police covered the Uchiha areas and they didn't want strife between the two factions, and now the Uchiha were gone, there was even less reason to watch for shinobi movements… no Uchiha uprising to watch for.

He could kill her.

Yasha double-checked Etsuko, stroking her cheek gently and smiling faintly as she rooted in her sleep. His expression hardened and an unseen glint appeared in his dark eyes as he jumped onto a kitchen worktop. It creaked dangerously as he plucked a sharpened kunai off the top of a high cupboard and stepped back down onto the kitchen floor, muffling his footstep so the sleeping kids wouldn't wake.

Stepping outside, back into the cool breeze, locking the door behind him (it was a bad neighbourhood, after all).

Any method he used to kill her that released KI wouldn't work, even if there was no ANBU nearby, this was still a ninja village. The odds that he wouldn't be able to erase every trace (including her obviously preteen skeleton) before someone emerged to see it were highly likely; it took a ton of focus to erase non-flesh items, including bones. The debris of bone would vanish easily, since the disintegration made a powder even thinner than talcum, but he'd have to completely destroy every part of her before ANBU appeared, and cover it up.

Yasha could use the excuse it was a mugger, but he'd still have to explain why he was up at this time, and out in a dodgy part of town, _and_ why a mugger would attack him when he triggered danger instincts (which was particularly strong at night).

And he couldn't risk drawing attention to himself, especially by releasing enough KI to wake half the town. He recalled the nickname Itachi had called him – 'KI alarm clock' – if he killed someone, being he had to drag the KI release out and dissolve every part of her, people would _definitely_ take notice.

A preteen out late releasing KI, and someone in the same class vanishes mysteriously the same night. It wouldn't take a genius to connect the dots.

Inoichi was overprotective anyway; the loss of his daughter would drive him _insane_. On the off chance the Yamanaka in Yasha's T&amp;I session those months back (man, it felt like _years_) was Inoichi, Inoichi would already be biased to not trust Yasha, since anyone who saw Yasha disliked him. He had to either drag her out the village and kill her with the swarms undetected, or just kill her in a bog-standard chakra-less way and hide her body.

Yasha scoffed as he rounded the corner, halfway to her now. Hide her body, in a village full of ninja. Not going to work. He'd had to cover up smell, sight (Byakugan), not to mention hide all traces of guilt. He could do it, but killing someone just for watching their classmate was… well, it left a bad taste in his mouth. Killing her chakra-less and then using the swarms would give him no advantages, except stopping her from spreading information (assuming dead brains couldn't be read by Yamanaka).

It was a Friday tomorrow, so he couldn't hold onto her unconscious or dead for long – even a surprise sleepover excuse wouldn't hold on a weekday, an overprotective father wouldn't tolerate it.

So, there was significant risk to hide her, since he'd have to move her body to somewhere that he didn't pass through often, while remaining undetected – and it flat-out wouldn't work to kidnap her, which left… erasing memories somehow, or making her cover it up too.

He couldn't risk her coming into contact with the kids, though. Definitely, 100% not. With her fancy Yamanaka cross-minds techniques, what if she transferred that memory to some random enemy? Or she was interrogated by an enemy country?

…Okay, that was unlikely, maybe he _was_ panicking a little. Okay, a lot.

He was sweating heavily. He kept the pace though, a slightly fast stride, rounded the last corner and frowned at the figure bending over her.

That mugger had decided to pick an easy target. He watched as the man bent down, running his hands in a practised way down her sides, pulling out her purse, fiddling with her ears, probably for the earrings.

He could pretend the mugger had been the one to knock her out, but that still left the problem of her knowing about the kids. A hard knock sometimes gave amnesia, but clan heiress of the mind clan, with an overprotective father? Having an unstable mind may well ruin any mind technique. Inoichi would move heaven and earth to invent a technique that 'fixed his little girl' if one didn't already exist.

And shit, if he _did_ get the mugger off her, the mugger would have seen him with Ino; if he killed or kidnapped her he'd be traced as only a matter of time, and the mugger may spread the word that there was a scary kid around who stole his prey. That meant there was _two_ people with knowledge he now had to take care of.

He absently noted it was not a normal reaction to notice someone being mugged to observe silently and think about the implications of what rescuing them meant.

_Damn_, his head hurt. The headache, lack of sleep, adrenaline and all his churning emotions was almost nauseating.

Maybe he should just go with his instincts; if he couldn't kill or hide Ino, then the next thing to do was make her forget. He'd keep her knocked out all night, ask Kurenai for genjutsu to hide memories tomorrow, and roll with that.

For now, it was time to take care of the mugger. He grinned twistedly, running his tongue over his sharp canines.

"Oi. She's _my_ prey," he growled, stepping out of the shadows.

* * *

The mugger froze, feeling the threat behind him before he even saw Yasha. He turned back to the blond girl, reassessing – cute, well-kept clothes, perfume… a great catch – and he turned back. "Fuck off, kid."

Yasha's grin slipped off his face as the mugger's attention switched right to Ino's lower regions, tapping her leg pockets to find a purse, but to Yasha's eye he was doing something much worse. His body froze up as an alarming flashback tore through his head, making him step back involuntarily.

At that point an ANBU wearing a lion mask paused on the rooftop, the hair on the back of his neck rising. He turned, eyes flickering over the landscape, extending every sense he had. Even though both chakra presences were relatively minor, the fact one had a _hell_ of a dark taint to it made him immediately realise who it was.

Instantly a mental question: Go observe, or ignore the brat who had _nearly_ cost him his job and HAD cost him his reputation?

He dithered for a second before he moved to the location about three streets from his patrol route, taking in the scene. Blond girl on the ground, unconscious, man looking like he was going to get a bit too close to her nether regions, and the brat facing him off. He flared his chakra to attract his team, stepping onto ground level in a crouch. '_Whatever is going on here-'_

Yasha's body _exploded_ into billowing black not-smoke, and a KI shockwave _blasted _outwards, cracking the concrete and gravel around him like it were glass. Lion caught a glimpse of something dark red before he found himself taking a back seat in his own body, detached by the sheer awe he felt.

In an instant, Yasha was on top of the man, knocking him off Ino, a gust of wind pulled after him.

Lion watched distantly from a couple of metres away as Yasha, the fog lessening but still thick around his figure, sliced violently across the man's chest, shrieking in a mindless rage. In seconds the alley was a bloody mess, just as ANBU Boar appeared above Lion. Both of them watched silently as Yasha just kept tearing at the man.

His screaming evolved into words. "YOU FUCKING RAPIST BASTARDS I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU FUCKING FUCKED UP PIECES OF SHIT LEAVE THE FUCKING CHILDREN ALONE!"

With each word he ripped part of the man's body off with what looked like _claws_. The man was horrifically still alive, despite multiple fatal wounds including a gaping hole where his stomach should be. His arms that would have protected him had simply _vanished_, torn into stumps.

As the final two members of their night patrol squad neared them, Lion took action, gesturing for Boar to get the girl, calling out once his teammate had reached her. "Yasha!"

Yasha's head shot around, and Lion felt a cold shiver run so far down his spine he froze, as the blood-red slitted eyes glared at him, a flashback to the time he had seen the Kyuubi.

The slits widened as they took him in, and the pure hatred fled. The boy glanced back to the mutilated remains of a man, and then turned back, his eyes back to its normal solid black.

Lion then had the horrific experience of watching detachment kick in.

In five seconds, Yasha's rage and shock at what he had done had devolved into an amused expression. "Well…" Yasha smiled, his teeth a bright white colour against the blood-soaked face. "What are you gentlemen doing out here so late? It's dangerous."

He clamped his hands together into a Snake seal, pulling the insects back.

* * *

Ino felt herself fall down, hitting soft grass. She blinked up at the light blue sky, smelling the scent of ginger and sighed. She had fallen into her mindscape.

Mind-affecting genjutsu on a Yamanaka still worked, when it came to non-harmful usage, but it would take a disabling of their mental defences before their minds could work against them (such as most genjutsu tried to achieve). She could wake back up, but it would take a while. Really, she should have seen them coming, whoever it was.

She scooted over to a pond a metre away that she knew would be there, and watched its surface: a single ripple was spreading from the center, the force that had knocked her into her subconscious mindscape. The waves would travel to the edge of the pond, but never go past it, repeating in lesser and lesser size and speed until the body recovered.

A single small ripple – a _very_ minor knockout, compared to a good punch to the head (which her Dad described as 'small waves'). So it had definitely been jutsu.

The worse the damage to her body, the larger the wave would be; the longer she would take to wake up, the slower the wave would travel. As it was, she didn't even need to speed it up; a few minutes and she'd be waking up naturally, with barely any damage received at all. No point in wasting chakra too early.

She frowned, pondering. Her consciousness wasn't in control of her body, but it was fully coherent; otherwise she'd be running on emotions and intents and hormones, really low-level stuff which took a lot of training to convert into basic thought. Training Ino hadn't yet done.

Yasha had been ahead of her just half a minute or so before. It would take some pretty impressive speed and stealth to circle around that quickly, not to mention he'd never even glanced her way, so it _shouldn't_ have been him.

Since she was coherent, she wondered: how would Yasha react to her discovering a secret of his? Well, she didn't really know his personality well enough. However and whoever did it, it was _super_-gentle.

But if it was someone else… if a civilian, they wouldn't be able to knock her out so… _delicately_, and if a shinobi, in those circumstances anyone bar Yasha wouldn't knock her out. Even kidnappers and whatnot (there were _some_ bad eggs in the ranks, it'd be naïve to assume otherwise) wouldn't make sarcastic comments before they knocked her out. It'd save chakra to just punch her out, but evidently whoever did it didn't want to harm her. Kidnappers weren't unlikely; it wasn't a well-patrolled area of town and she obviously hadn't been cautious. A clan heir was a significant target… but then the fact she would wake up in… she turned at the pool… yeah, only a couple of minutes.

No one liked having people find out their secrets. Apparently this was one – and a significant one, for him to take her down without even considering of the consequences. Then again, he was very tired, and he had looked that way for days straight. Good judgement was one of the things to drift away during periods of stress and exhaustion. Judgement was a mix of emotions and logic, and it heavily impacted logic when you were tired. Lethargy was a particularly strong factor in frustration.

Not that it was an excuse enough for Ino to not kick his butt once she woke up. That was no way to treat a lady. _'If Dad found out he'd…'_

She smirked at the thought, then the frown returned as she remembered Dad's warning to her to _never_ attempt to access Yasha's or Naruto's minds, even in combat scenarios.

Yasha needed to explain himself, though. Taking care of kids was one thing, and he could see why that would be a bad thing for his apathetic bad-guy image… but surely he wasn't so embarrassed about it he'd _knock out classmates_ to stop them finding it out?

It just made him seem guilty of something, but there was nothing he had done. He was genuinely caring for the kids, so even the small chance of kidnapping was out the window. Even laced with lethargy his expression and body language held a fatherly care for that baby he was holding.

He was like Sasuke, but more emotional. Oh, Kami. She was starting to fall for him. She gazed at the pond as a blush hit her face. About a minute until she was meant to wake up, and she didn't really want to sit here with that train of thought. She wanted to be awake before he expected – she was a damn _Yamanaka_ and a mental attack shouldn't be ignored.

She started moulding chakra, placing into the pool, flattening the ripple. Easy to do, she'd be up in a few seconds. She'd practiced this before, albeit only a few times. As her consciousness returned to her body, she felt her senses return. A muffled voice, telling a kid to fuck off. _'Who? Yasha?'_

Someone's hands running up her sides, down to her thighs. The hands, coarse and too big, trailed down to her legs. Her jaw dropped in shock. Someone was taking advantage of her?

Just then her mindscape went black and all the grass withered in an instant. She gaped and lost focus, quickly regaining it, waking herself up as quickly as possible. Now was not the time.

Her eyes flickered open just in time to see the man's face – bearded, unkempt – get _blasted_ from her by a ball of black fog, flung to her side at such a pace her head rolled from the tiny amount of momentum.

She watched as the black fog-covered thing started tearing whoever was feeling her up to pieces, gagging as blood splatters started getting flicked everywhere. She kept trying to tune back into the screaming she could hear, but her ears were muffled up, a lost connection. She couldn't move either. This was a rough wake-up, Dad had told her about that.

She caught the ending part of the screaming and her vision cleared up to see it was Yasha. A _demon_ Yasha.

The sheer disbelief was making her feel like she wasn't awake, but only the most advanced genjutsu wielders could lock down an unconscious mind…

At that point an ANBU with a Boar mask appeared in her vision, checking her over with practiced efficiency. But when she saw Yasha's slitted red eyes, she couldn't hold onto the disbelief any more, and her consciousness drifted away.

* * *

Inoichi rubbed his face blearily. In front of him were stacks upon stacks of mission reports. He was isolating who Yūrei would have forced genjutsu on, who he _might_ have, and who was most likely clean. He'd been working since the evening and the sun had set a while ago.

But it would take more time if he went for every ANBU in operation, not to mention the raised eyebrows from wanting to go through excess S-Rank information. Each of them had strong mental defences from standardised ANBU training; each unique mind built with their own variation of traps and walls.

Only dates and operatives in the missions were significant. Yūrei had no join date (a shortcoming _someone_ should've noticed already, _really_), so the minimum mission date had to be calculated first; anyone in service during that date had to be put on the maybe list.

Likewise, anyone Yūrei worked with who sang his praises a bit _too_ early, onto the maybe list. Whoever was on his team in general, ever, had to be noted. It was a bit like trying to work out who was sick in the town based on who a contagious person made contact with. Except the contagious period lasted over a decade, and, thankfully, Inoichi didn't have to worry about civilians. It was well known Yūrei worked tirelessly, and spent his free time training and resting at the ANBU headquarters.

What made more complicated was the mission reports were probably accurate, and if that were the case, Inoichi had to acknowledge Yūrei was fairly talented even from the beginning, even amongst ANBU-level ninja, he was promising from the start – so including everyone who thought Yūrei was talented would be going too far.

Once Inoichi had narrowed that down, he had to cut it into a short report – each operative, why he suspected them – and it had to be put on the Hokage's desk as a matter of urgency.

The ANBU's common missions such as patrols had their team members shuffled on the off-chance Yūrei had planted more than just trust in his genjutsus, but it was really a gambler's defence; the members wouldn't grate together, but they weren't seamless either. It was the only way to be sure. However, the longer Inoichi took, the longer the Yūrei-caused gap in the village's defences remained.

If only shadow clones didn't cripple his ability to use mind techniques, Inoichi would feel more comfortable using them to speed this process up.

It wasn't pretty when a shadow clone tried to transfer its consciousness using Mind-Body transfer, and the consciousness flew through the air, and then the clone's body was dispelled. That would cause every remaining clone and the original to fall unconscious, waiting for the memories to return through a broken link. Days could pass before the consciousness collected itself. Being the other clones didn't last that long, the problem compounded as even more parts of the conscious were lost.

He jolted as the door was knocked on curtly. His wife had been told not to enter, as had Ino. And anyway, Ino was going out today, a quick visit to a girl friend of hers. Not that she wasn't safe under the watch of ANBU, but come to think of it, could any ANBU be trusted before he'd written them as clean?

When he saw the person opening the door was, in fact, an ANBU, his heart clenched in fear. If this was one of Yūrei's minions…

The ANBU thankfully didn't approach, just bowed at the door, hand on the handle. "Yamanaka-sama, I have been instructed to inform you your daughter has been taken to the hospital," The boar-masked shinobi informed him shortly.

Inoichi blinked as the ANBU stepped to the side, waiting out of sight. _'What?'_

His flagging mind took a few seconds to process what had been said, then his face whitened. "No!" he snapped, almost losing his normal ironclad grip on his emotions. He dived out the door and did some unguarded body-flicker bursts, the Boar ANBU accompanying him.

He was in too much of a hurry, but in the ten seconds it took him to get to the hospital in body-flicker bursts, he had remembered the fundamental rule of mental control.

Emotions were emitted by the subconscious, and hormones were released in response. His judgement was already impaired from fatigue, thanks to his hard focus over several hours.

He had to calm down. He loved Ino dearly, but he was a clan head. The ANBU hadn't described how hurt she was; he'd gone off the deep end.

But Ino's personality was harshly opposed to appearing weak – her being taken to the hospital meant she couldn't refuse the person taking her.

So, "What happened to her?"

Boar cleared his throat. "She was found unconscious beside Yasha and the remains of an adult."

Inoichi did a double-take. _"Yasha? _And the _remains_ of one?"

"Hai. Yasha is with her now under two ANBU's watch." The ANBU gestured to follow and took off ahead of him, moving at a jounin pace, the perplexed clan head hot on his heels.

"The _remains_?" Inoichi repeated distantly.

* * *

Yasha frowned down at his hands. They were a dark red colour. He'd gotten them red before, a light red, and red between the folds of the skin, but there was seriously a _lot_ of blood to deal with this time. It was quite impressive; he didn't know he was capable of that.

He flexed his hands, watching the blood drip off. It was warm and coarse to the touch, the thick layer slightly constricting and vaguely warming. It was an odd sensation.

In the bed alongside him was Ino, who was being fussed over by two times the number of nurses she would normally need. The ones meant to be inspecting Yasha wouldn't even approach him (unsurprisingly), even with two ANBU standing watching closely in the room.

Yasha frowned. The ANBU knew what he was doing, that he was defending Ino, else he'd be in T&amp;I so they could be figuring out his motive for cold-blooded murder. They couldn't leave a blood-soaked boy in the streets, and taking him to their Jinchūriki's home would be stupid, so hospital was a logical choice.

Weren't ANBU in teams of four? Some poor sap on the team was on 'watch the remains' duty.

He flexed his hands again, rotating them, feeling the tightness around the folds where the blood had hardened. He had managed to cut into flesh with his bare hands, and do a huge amount of damage. That was worth looking into, how he had managed that. He barely remembered it, but judging from the splatter patterns and empty hands, he had pulled it off. _'What happened to the kunai? Did I drop it?'_

The dark-haired boy wasn't looking when Inoichi stepped inside, his blue-green eyes instantly locking onto the boy sat on the edge of the bed, shock on his normally unreadable face.

Yasha's entire front was _covered_ in blood, thick enough for it to be dripping and making a small puddle under the chair. It was over his face and the fringe of his hair as well. It was like someone had thrown a bucket of it over him.

Inoichi got over his initial shock and took in Ino, who looked perfectly healthy, bar tiny splatters of blood over her. The nurse's chakra seemed unhurried, and all mannerisms all pointed to 'no big problem'.

The blood wasn't hers.

The Yamanaka head sighed in relief, turning back to Yasha, re-assessing him. No wounds, no tears in the clothing. Just the sheer volume of blood was all that indicated something different.

Yasha hadn't seen him yet. Inoichi stepped back outside, frowning, pinching at the bridge of his nose. Ino was fine, and Yasha had, for some reason, gone ballistic on someone else right next to her. The sheer violence she saw must have made her pass out – no doubt it was quite _something_ if the aftermath by itself was so bloody.

She _wasn't _going to meet with Yasha, though; just to 'visit a friend quickly'. Inoichi would have forbade and warned and done everything in his power to convince her to stay away from him had he known it was Yasha that Ino was visiting.

He turned back to the ANBU who had brought him here, who was standing a bit too close to him for comfort, being any ANBU could be a Yūrei minion. He could make out the vestiges of Byakugan behind his mask. "Boar-san, explain to me why Yasha attacked him. Do you know?"

"I believe Lion was first at the scene," Boar deflected, stepping to the side. Truth be told, he had been aware of what was going on, having activated Byakugan to watch his teammate as soon as Lion flared his chakra.

On cue, Lion flickered into sight. "Sir. The girl was already unconscious when I arrived; the man who is now deceased was feeling her thighs."

He said it simply and without any trace of emotion. Inoichi inhaled sharply, and for once in many years, his mind went numb with shock.

Lion was meanwhile rather grateful for his training to answer blankly and without embarrassment; it'd taken many hours of reading out embarrassing and ridiculous things but it had paid off. "Yasha then lost control and attacked him in immense rage, seeing it as a rape attempt, judging from what he was screaming. I interrupted him, and we brought them both here."

Inoichi nodded numbly. Lion patiently waited for him to recover. A minute passed, and Inoichi finally shook himself, tilting to look around the doorway at Yasha again. "He… _protected_ her?"

Lion nodded. "Hai."

Inoichi took in the blood dripping from Yasha and his fascinated gazing at his own hands. "He's…" Words failed him. _'Insane? A monster?'_

The dark-haired boy was kicking his legs, flicking blood off his fingers and disinterestedly picking bits of human remains from his clothes. The floor now had a considerably-sized puddle of dark red blood, along with what looked like parts of an intestine. The smell of bile was cloying and putrid.

"I'm _borrreddd_," Yasha whined, kicking his blood-soaked shoes and splattering thin sprays of red across the floor. "Can I go now?"

_'Naruto has it hard,'_ Inoichi thought in stunned disbelief, _'but __**this**__ is a monster wearing a human skin.'_

He shook himself. No, he was exaggerating, getting too emotionally involved. Yasha was still human… _really_… he just had such a detachment mechanism that to him, the life he had just taken was just a nameless side character, an enemy whose killing had no moral questions raised about. The amount of destruction he did was just his method of killing an unimportant being, and so it wasn't any more important than the being.

Yasha detached his target's humanity as soon as he had to recognise he killed them. The blood dripping off him was not the result of murder; it was more a nameless action, like squashing an insect. An enemy defeated, a battle won, and that blood was a trophy, if it was even worth noting.

Unlike the shinobi who saw the horrors of war and forever looked haunted, Yasha would detach their humanity and not recognise them as a 'real person', and walk around without any cares about killing them, just like killing a spider in his bedroom… or killing a character on a game. He could massacre an entire village of people and barely think about it in the years to come.

Kami, that was disturbing to know. To Inoichi's eye, Yasha _really_ needed help, but on the other hand, he wasn't traumatised at all by a murder, which many ninja needed weeks to get over. Come to think of it, if anyone tried to prove the people were 'real' and avenge them, he'd just detach their humanity as well, seeing their anger and dismay as a weak impersonation of a real relationship.

Inoichi would be distancing himself if he pointed out that possible rapist was a real human being… simply because Yasha could not accept that without exposing himself to the fact he killed a _real person_… so he would refuse to.

The Yamanaka rubbed the bridge of his nose again, noticing with a start the two ANBU in front of him had vanished. He knew he was tired, but his judgement and observation was _seriously_ lacking. It was like his subconscious was busy doing something else. He'd have to look at that as soon as possible.

He went around the corner and to Ino's bedside. Half the nurses were glancing over at Yasha, looking like they didn't want to inspect him but couldn't really stand around fretting, so in reality all four of them were just using Ino as an excuse to ignore Yasha – she didn't need the attention.

He gestured the nurses out and they complied all-too-eagerly. Inoichi made a few handseals and put his hand on his daughter's forehead, jumping into her mindscape. It failed; she had genuinely fainted from emotional distress. _'What did Yasha subject her to during his "defence"?'_

Honestly, Inoichi couldn't bring himself to hate or like Yasha for what he had done. The chance of Ino being… well, he couldn't even _think_ the word… was apparently a very real possibility, but then again, ANBU had been there. But losing control in a way that simply seemed _inhumane_ was another matter entirely; he couldn't support that either.

It was trading one monstrous act for another… and the only difference was the victim was no longer his daughter.

"Inoichi, right?" The boy in question called across to him, a disarming and disturbingly cheery grin on his face. "Nice to meet you. I'm Yasha."

He held out one hand, which was still dripping blood. Inoichi watched blankly as the boy looked down at the dripping and coughed embarrassedly, scratching his nose and smearing blood across it. "Ah, maybe we'll shake hands sometime else."

"That's probably for the best," Inoichi said without a smile, his stern look fully implanted onto his face. "Yasha, what did you do?"

The boy's dark eyes looked up at him, and back at his red-splattered feet. "I lost control."

"Of _what?"_ Inoichi asked bluntly.

"Uh… my ability to tolerate rape attempts in front of me?" Yasha scratched the back of his head nervously, adding to the colour there.

Inoichi rolled his eyes, feeling his daughter's chakra beginning to wake. "I think it should be obvious to you, what you did was not a common ability."

"Ripping rapists apart isn't common?" Yasha asked with faux-surprise.

"Not as much as you think." Inoichi didn't lose his sternness – if he let Yasha take the moral high ground or turn the convo into his for a second, both Yamanaka would be in debt to him; but what he did was overkill, even for a rapist. Inoichi had to get that point across. "You went over the top, and Ino fainted from emotional distress."

"Distress…?" Yasha repeated slowly, like he disagreed. Inoichi noted that – and the fact Yasha hadn't _commented_ that he disagreed – so he was hiding something about how she was unconscious in the first place. Chances are he saw it or did it himself.

He played off his hunch. "It wouldn't be too difficult to find out who knocked out Ino _before _that man got there. The Yamanaka have very good mental defences; they can store information like that even whilst unconscious."

Yasha looked stunned, not knowing Inoichi was lying for a reaction. "That's…" His mind reeled in horror. _'__**SHIT. **__I hadn't considered that. It'll reduce my options a __**lot**__. If Ino knew it was me who made her defenceless to that rapist in the first place, then that was no rescue attempt, it was… well, me covering my tracks, fixing a mistake. Not that I regret killing that guy, but if that ANBU hadn't turned up… well. I'm not sure what I was expecting, really. I can't think straight, shit."_

Inoichi hovered his hand over Ino, pointing to various parts. "In addition, there's no head injuries, suggesting it was a jutsu, in which case traces of the assailant's chakra will remain within Ino's body for a while. I'm a chakra sensor, so I can analyse it easily," Inoichi continued, hammering the nails in and watching Yasha closely, but the boy didn't react, looking distant instead. _'Damn, he's the type that tunes out the environment to think. Even if he reacts, it could be to an unrelated thought. Damn this kid for being so unreadable.'_

Yasha, unwittingly safe within the retreats of his own head, considered that new suggestion. _'If Inoichi __**can **__analyse that, he'll recognise I knocked out Ino, but that still leaves him with __**why**__. It's obviously not a spar; there'd be no opportunity for the rapist to turn up if that were the case, and it's the wrong location and time to have a spar, which only leaves me assaulting her. In short, he'll gain that I assaulted her, which won't be pretty if he works it out._

_'If anything, I have to hide the kids. It's not even been two weeks, and true, it's draining to work with them without __**real**__ help, but with Orochimaru and Danzō, I can't risk them being discovered._

_'I can't overtly jump into her mind here and try to destroy that memory, not with her dad around – assuming I even __**could**__ destroy memories, but I haven't the faintest idea how to __**begin**__ with that… much less work on someone who's trained in mind techniques. That leaves convincing her – somehow – to hide it herself. She'll know it's a secret just from the fact I knocked her out… but how do I get her to hide it?'_

"Yasha, if it was you who put her in danger, you had better tell me now, before I find out for myself," Inoichi said frostily. In truth, he'd have a _lot _of difficulty finding out, unless the technique was _designed _to leave an imprint to keep the person unconscious until it was removed – which Inoichi knew wasn't the case, since he could sense Ino was already awake and listening to them.

If Yasha's chakra control wasn't good, he might be able to find remaining traces, though. And then there was always asking Ino herself.

A few seconds passed in complete silence, with the clock suddenly seeming far louder. Ino was staring at the ceiling, in contemplation like Yasha was. _'Yasha doesn't want anyone to find out he cares for those kids… but why? Is it really worth this?'_

Yasha was working his lagging brain as hard as he could. _'If I admit it was me, Inoichi will hate my guts, but more importantly, the __**why **__I knocked out Ino will most likely become a serious question that she'll have no choice but to answer or else. If I don't admit it and he finds out it __**was **__me, whether through Ino or his own sensing, he'll hate my guts even worse, and chuck me in T&amp;I for sure. If I don't and he can't find out, he'll suspect me until Ino either blows it or hides it out of curiosity.'_

_'Curiosity… is there a way for me to increase her curiosity without broadcasting anything to Inoichi listening in? Maybe… if she's awake now… she should be, I suppose? And even if she wasn't, from what Inoichi's just said, she'll still be aware of what I say, so same diff.'_

Yasha sighed, letting his exhaustion manifest as his attack formed in his head – a curiosity-building sentence. He spoke it clearly and with just the _faintest_ emphasis. "Some people are pretty important to others, Yamanaka-sama…" His tone became genuinely regretful. "I'm sorry for what happened. I was only trying to protect her."

Ino frowned slightly, curiosity well and truly piqued. _'Why __**are**__ they important to him? And why is he trying to hide them? I can't just spill his secret without knowing. And heck,' _she grinned to herself internally, _'It's a bit of a blackmail opportunity here as well; I can't just pass that up.'_

Yasha suppressed his own grin as he _finally _worked out what excuse to use for Ino being unconscious. That took too long, he was almost out of time. "She… tried to transmit her mind into me, and then she just fell down. I wasn't expecting her jutsu to fail, so I kind of panicked and ran to find someone… then I remembered it was a bad neighbourhood, so I ran back and came across…" he trailed off and let the clan head fill in the gaps.

"Why didn't you just stick by her?" Inoichi probed, although more perplexed by whether Ino would do that. _'Ino wouldn't ignore my warning… well, maybe that wasn't true, it probably __**would**__ make her curious… but she needs a __**stern**__ talking-to if Yasha's not lying through his teeth. People with his mindset don't like to lie… but they still do if it's the only way out.'_

Yasha sighed, dredging up memories of the instruction scroll. "She told me the mind transfer technique she uses, if it fails, her consciousness takes a while to return to her body. I didn't want to move her and risk her consciousness getting lost on the way back. But after I ran for help, I realised that was a stupid thing to do."

Sound logic, and a perfect excuse. Ino pursed her lips with a frown; she hadn't ever told him that detail about her technique – in fact she hadn't told him _anything_ about her technique at all. Where had he got _that_ information from? The jutsu were clan secrets!

And her father _expected_ the technique to completely fail on Yasha, or he would've called him out on it, which was interesting – there wasn't anyone who had a defence she had heard of that made the mind transmission technique fail outright.

You could get into even ANBU with that technique, it was just getting information and/or getting out that was difficult (depending on the defences). And ANBU obviously had failsafes against a body takeover, so you'd be in for a rough ride as they had perfect control while your body slumped defenceless. So they actually preferred allowing entry, since it gave them a good opportunity to attack without consequence.

There wasn't anyone it failed completely on. But it was a perfect excuse, if even her father was unable to question it. All Ino had to do was concur, and Yasha would be home free whereas she'd get lectures all over the place about listening to her father when he warned her off using mind techniques on certain people. _That_ wouldn't be fun.

But then _after _that, Yasha would owe her a big favour for covering up his secret, and if she wanted, she had _two_ different blackmail material: first to reveal that it was actually _his _fault she wasn't able to defend herself, and second those kids he was taking care of that he was so keen on hiding.

And Yasha had _nothing _on her.

Ino had a feeling the last few weeks of Academy were going to be quite enjoyable.

* * *

Yasha wanted to take a photo when he got home, but ignored the instinct. Instead he headed straight to the shower, an ANBU watching in the hallway to make sure Naruto didn't get up and see his bloodied friend.

The boy stepped into the bathroom, shutting the door, and got under the shower. As the sound of water started, running down his clothes, Yasha sighed. "What have I gotten myself into?"

Ino was the _last_ person he wanted to have blackmail material on him. The absolute _worst_. She was a Yamanaka so manipulation was far harder, she wouldn't forget easily, she had an overprotective father, she was a gossip queen, _and_ she had popularity desires – she had a desire to control people as well, and moreover, the manipulation training of the Yamanaka to enforce it. She was the **_worst _**person in the town to have blackmail material on him. She would control him like a fucking _puppet_.

Gritting his teeth, he hit his head against the tiled wall, pissed off. "Why the _fuck_ did she have to follow me _tonight?!_ Why couldn't she _mind her own fucking business?!"_ he swore angrily, but not above the noise of the shower. "Fuck her, the stupid fucking _idiot_."

He watched the dark red water trail down the drain, taking deep, calming breaths. "Still… she _did_ cover it up. I might still be able to work this out. But I'm going to need a clear head, and I can't get that with those _brats_ in the other place. I just don't get enough sleep. Hell, I barely get any. If it's not Etsuko up at stupid o'clock, it's the six-month-old brat."

He turned his face upwards, feeling the blood run off his face, scrubbing at the more stubborn parts with his palms. After about twenty minutes of thought, he stepped back out – not feeling happy, but nonetheless a bit more confident.

For what remained of tonight and tomorrow morning, he was getting a good night's sleep; he couldn't risk going back to the kids' place with ANBU night patrols on his butt. He'll think things through properly after a good night's sleep.

And Keito would just have to deal with his absence in the morning. He would send Keito a message if he knew how to shadow clone, but the idiot should work out to feed the kids when they were hungry. He might be an eight-year-old, but he was an Uchiha, and not an idiot. _'Didn't Itachi make chuunin at age stupid? …Whatever. Screw my memory. I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I'll have to ask Kurenai if genjutsu can be used to hide memories. It's probably a yes.'_

* * *

"…is that _QUITE CLEAR?!"_ Inoichi snapped, letting the remnants of his anger go with the last of his lecture.

"Yes, father," she replied meekly enough.

"Kami-sama…" her father sighed, planting his hand on his forehead. She blinked.

He sat down with a sigh, looking at her tiredly and she rolled her eyes internally. He was going for the sympathy angle, the basic of basics.

Her father clasped his hands, looking at her sternly. "Ino, right now I'm trying my best to fix an _incredibly_ severe risk to Konoha. Enough to topple it in _hours_ if it's not fixed."

Her eyes widened of their own accord, and she mentally berated herself for not doing it on purpose. She was better than that. He was probably exaggerating.

"I need _absolute_ focus for this. I'm the best person for the job; you know I'm retired from T&amp;I, but still, I have to work, _hard_. I can't deal with you doing things like this as well, putting yourself in unnecessary risk with boys like Yasha."

And now would come the punishments. She braced herself, steeling back her protests that might make it worse.

"You're grounded. Until I say otherwise," Inoichi commanded flatly.

_"Daaaaad!"_

* * *

6AM struck, Hiruzen was just settling into the thick of his paperwork, when a white-haired shinobi jumped through the window, the ANBU twitching in suppressed instincts. No surprise there, Hiruzen was normally warned by the gate patrols before the Sannin reached the Hokage Tower. "Jiraiya?"

The Sannin nodded hurriedly. "Sensei. You've _got_ to take a look at some info I gathered. And clear the room."

Hiruzen tested the tang of the chakra of the Jiraiya-lookalike, and confirmed he was genuine. But it had been a while since Jiraiya had looked flustered like that. "ANBU, clear the room." He repeated in his commanding tone, and the ANBU's signatures vanished.

Jiraiya gestured at the privacy seals and Hiruzen activated them, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "What is it?"

"The Shinigami, that guy from around the Second World War?" Jiraiya said tensely, waiting for his aged sensei to nod. "He went to Konoha, and we escorted him here. I have a written log."

So saying, he slapped the old diary onto the desk. Hiruzen gave him an inquisitive look, and then he snatched up the diary. The Toad Sannin collapsed into the chair, muttering "Page 51".

Ten minutes later, the old man gave a sigh that made the air reverberate. "I'm too old for this."

"That's what I keep telling you!" Jiraiya grinned, unable to miss the opportunity.

The village leader sat back, rubbing his temples. "Then _you_ can take the hat."

"Ah, yes, I can see it now…" Jiraiya rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "First new rule as Fifth Hokage: All bathhouses are mixed and have no perimeter fences surrounding…"

"Forget it," the Third sighed, rolling his eyes. He stabbed at an entry with his finger. "You know Yasha?"

"Hai, he was the guy with the 'Death Release' you wanted me to investigate…? Oh." Jiraiya suddenly connected the dots: they both had dark chakra appearances.

"Yep."

"You don't suppose _he's_ the Shinigami?"

Hiruzen shook his head slowly. "No, not at all. His age would be off – he would barely be two years old or so at that time. I doubt he'd have slaughtering hundreds on his mind."

Jiraiya smirked. "That's true. But the symptoms of the two are very close."

The Hokage set his chin down on his clasped hands, humming in thought. "I think it's safe to assume the Shinigami was the previous Death Release carrier. According to Yasha, only one Death Release user can be alive at any point in time – when one dies, a new one is born, and so on. It's not genetic, at least not purely, like other bloodlines. Yasha has already demonstrated mental communication and wide-area killing techniques."

Jiraiya whistled. "You essentially have the next Shinigami on your side, if you train Yasha properly."

"I'd hate to even _consider_ that," the Hokage sighed.

Jiraiya was taken aback by the 180 opinion. He frowned. "There's something you're not telling me about Yasha?"

The Hokage considered telling him, and shrugged mentally. He had a right to know, now Yasha had already been investigated. "Yasha has a mentality that the world is a game. He also has a desire to be some sort of puppeteer, and control people."

Jiraiya lost all traces of humour. "You mean to say Yasha, the closest friend of Minato's son and the Kyuubi Jinchūriki, is a _manipulative bastard?!"_

"That's about right." Hiruzen lit his pipe, ignoring the fact the privacy seals meant the smoke would just build up. He needed the release, and Jiraiya couldn't run off and sic on Yasha while the seals were active. "He's definitely got Naruto well under his control, but as far as I can tell, he's just using that as a guarantee that he won't lose a friend. From his T&amp;I session we've gathered he feels very strongly for Naruto, of course not romantically, but he's also _personally_ experienced child abuse."

Jiraiya winced, and his anger decreased noticeably. "_Ouch._ That would explain things."

"Yep. I don't know what's 'normal' in his condition," The Hokage mused. "The 'world is a game' mindset is a very effective defence mechanism, as well as a philosophical concept – as such it's not easy to change people from."

"I hope you're know what you're doing, Sensei," Jiraiya sighed slowly. "What did Inoichi say?"

"He actually _recommended_ going along with it."

"Recommended?" The Toad Sannin repeated in surprise.

"Well, as it's such a good defence mechanism, and being Yasha's bloodline is particularly useful for assassination, the application in future missions is obvious."

Jiraiya frowned, giving an uneasy grin. "You're beginning to sound like Danzō."

The Third Hokage shrugged indifferently. "I have to consider something with an application _that_ obvious. It's still heavily distasteful, but the fact is that is what his bloodline _does_. It kills people.

"Anyway, Inoichi's explanation, in short: attempting to remove Yasha from control of people will cause further emotional detachment from the world in general. He'll place no importance on human lives and secrets that really matter. People like Naruto he likes because he feels safe around them; because he can control them. If he has no control over relationships, it makes him uneasy to interact, regardless of how many people he's familiar with, rather than causing trust as one might expect."

A couple of minutes passed while the two men sat in contemplation.

"That makes sense… in a twisted way," Jiraiya agreed reluctantly. "I can't deny a Yamanaka head in his own territory, but…"

"Abuse does _hell_ to young minds." The Hokage sighed. "Ultimately, if Yasha is allowed to control a lot of people, he'll stop seeing himself as a chess piece, and see himself as a real person, a player in the game. Without it, oddly enough, he'll feel controlled himself."

"But I still can't accept this, Sensei," the Toad Sannin growled, leaning forward on his chair. "It's granting an unknown person control of the village's possibly most powerful weapon. I was _there_ during the T&amp;I session, I know that Inoichi struggled to get even _scraps_ from his mind. And I know how messed up he is in the head. Tell me why this is the right thing to do."

The Hokage placed his hands on the table, chopping the air with each statement. "I'll put it simply; Yasha will only be attached emotionally to the village if he can feel safe in it; and he only feels safe if he can control people inside it. Naruto's now attached to him, more so than any other person." He stood up and began to pace. "I can't take him away now for Naruto's sake; and hopefully the relationship will work to attach Yasha to Konoha."

Jiraiya shrugged. "Fine, but ultimately, if he shows signs of turning into something hostile to Konoha, or getting too powerful to control, we'll have to work out a way of making him back under our control."

"I don't want to agree, but I have to be realistic." The Hokage gestured dismissively. "But, how would you go about that? Seals can't be applied to him, and he can disintegrate anything solid. He's smart enough to manipulate anyone close to him. We can't use any sort of mind control and he'll recognise persuasive techniques for what they are."

Jiraiya sighed. "Yeah."

There was a pregnant silence as the two were deep in thought, trying to work out a way to neutralise Yasha's threat. "Well, I'll need you to keep an eye on the Shinigami. Also, there's some details I need you to know about the Uchiha massacre."

Jiraiya blinked. "The Uchiha." He suddenly remembered with a start and his expression hardened. "So, what _really_ happened?"

"Really?" The Hokage repeated, sitting back down with a sigh, and taking a long drag on his pipe. He put it out roughly. "Itachi and an ANBU operative named Yūrei prevented a coup by exterminating the entire Uchiha population."

"The_ entire population?_ That Yūrei must really be something." Jiraiya searched his memory for the name. "That fuuinjutsu master?"

"Yes. He's someone I need to get you to track as soon as possible. I would recommend exterminating him on sight," the Hokage said calmly, without a trace of emotion, and the Sannin actually flinched.

"What did he do?" The Sannin had never heard the Hokage being so cold before. He was the most passive man you could ever meet.

The most powerful man in Konoha released a heavy sigh. "We found he's been putting the entirety of the elder council, myself, and a significant amount of ANBU under an S-Rank genjutsu, enforcing their trust of him, probably as soon as he arrived in Konoha. He's gained a reputation and a significant one at that; he's a master of assassination and infiltration, not to mention a dual Sharingan bearer, possibly with Mangekyō. And he's also a fuuinjutsu master, as you said."

Jiraiya winced and sucked breath through his teeth. "_Damn_."

The Hokage waved his hand. "In addition, we have no details on what his chakra looks like, since he used seals to hide his chakra constantly. We do have mission records, and Inoichi is trying his best to reverse a genjutsu on ANBU Lion, but so far no luck. Most of ANBU would trust him on sight, even against my order. He _does_, paradoxically enough, have a completely successful mission record, with no team members dying on a single one; he favoured working with Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha Shisui, and Hatake Kakashi. I've confirmed Kakashi hasn't got the genjutsu on him, but all three joined after Yūrei, when most of ANBU already had a favourable opinion of him."

"A fuuinjutsu master plus Sharingan genjutsu?" Jiraiya groaned. "That would be a _huge_ headache to deal with."

"Shisui did have a genjutsu that enforces a command on someone similar to that, but he died on a mission with Yūrei only a month ago… and the original genjutsu must have been one that wasn't his."

"Did we confirm Shisui's death?"

"No, we couldn't find the body, although Yūrei did show me a scroll that reportedly had Shisui's corpse in; then he headed to the Uchiha compound. I'll need you to question Itachi when you meet him, to see if he saw Shisui's body."

Jiraiya did a double-take. "Question him? You don't want him killed like Yūrei?"

The Hokage winced. "Here's where the line blurs, Jiraiya. Both of them acted under orders from Danzō, believing them to be from me. Yūrei, however, has the trust genjutsu issue. With that issue, the force of Konoha is hamstrung. I can't use any advanced chakra control, as I have a seal disturbing my flow every time, just so I keep a clear head. I tied it into this room's privacy seals, on the off chance Yūrei requests to speak with me."

He held up an arm, where a seal was glowing red. Jiraiya blinked at it.

"If I distribute this seal widely, the secret will most definitely get out, causing security breaches and even opportunistic invasion. But without it, we can't use most of ANBU, and the leadership is shot. As is, I'm having Inoichi lead the investigation, as I can't be working on it due to my trusting Yūrei – I'll end up dismissing it."

"Yūrei has a bingo book entry?"

The Hokage reached into a drawer and pulled out a Bingo Book. "No one knows what he looks like, but he dresses in a recognisably concealing way, and hasn't ever taken off his presence-hiding seals. If there's someone with presence-hiding seals, they either know Yūrei or are him."

"Find someone who looks like a black-mask ANBU and hides his presence, but could have anything under the mask." Jiraiya frowned at the paper. "And a Flee-On-Sight? Really?"

"No one but a Sannin or a Kage even stands a chance against him on their own." Hiruzen pursed his lips. "Attempting to engage an assassination expert and fuuinjutsu master, an ANBU captain, with dual Sharingan and possibly even Mangekyō… is nigh the same as suicide."

"And Itachi is believed loyal?"

"Yes. Yūrei acted like he was, but I can't trust my judgement on that, and while his genjutsu remains he's a crippling risk to Konoha's security."

"So, I have to track down this Zack person, the Master Sage, the Shinigami, the person who has the opposing bloodline to Yasha, and now Yūrei." The spy master sighed. "You're really testing my network, aren't you?"

The Hokage smirked despite his student's weary look. "Top priority is Yūrei, easily; he has a huge security risk. He worked with Itachi a lot, so I'd recommend going to Itachi first, and warning him. Don't let him engage Yūrei, though, and don't let on that Shisui's body never was recovered, it could make him unstable."

"Right. Well, I'll get straight to it. Mind if I…?" Jiraiya gestured at the Bingo Book.

"Oh, sure, take it." The Hokage waved it away. "Spread the news as quickly as possible that Yūrei needs to be located. The bounty on his head alone should be enough to convince your network to up their game."

"Sure thing. Keep an eye on that Yasha."

"Mm." The Hokage nodded, disabling the seals. A few seconds after he looked back, Yūrei's command kicked in, and he forgot his desire to watch Yasha.

* * *

Naruto slid out of bed with a sigh, whacking the alarm clock off. Once again, he had found it hard to sleep. Despite it being nearly two weeks, he couldn't sleep properly without the warmth in bed beside him. His only friend.

He didn't like Yasha's being absent at random hours of the day and night… but he couldn't do anything. Yasha had said once it was a good part of being a friend to keep secrets. Naruto kinda agreed, but it did leave him in a bind. He had asked Yasha, plenty of times, if there was anything he could do to help, but no dice.

It just made him worry, no matter how much Yasha assured him it wasn't a dangerous thing that he was doing at all hours of the day and night – how could it _not_ be? Yasha had also told him if he got involved or told someone else, people would _die!_

Naruto also had to lie about whether Yasha spent all day with him. True, his friend did spend _some _time each day with him, but nothing like what he did before. Naruto would have to wake Yasha up (he wouldn't wake up to the alarm), and the brunette would really struggle to look awake. It got gradually worse as the days went by.

Then they'd be off to the Academy, where Yasha would fight to stay awake under the gaze of the teachers. Sasuke and Naruto had to keep waking him up and give him help whenever the Sensei called on him. First time the moping Uchiha was good for something.

Then during lunch, Yasha would stuff store bento into his system, then sleep in the sun. (The girls seemed to like that.)

Then after school, Yasha would walk Naruto home, buying ready-made supper midway, and give him some books to study and tasks to do, things that would take hours. Then he'd be off, and he'd say it in a tired voice, and come back late at night or early the next morning. And sometimes, he'd come back in the evening, cook a meal large enough to feed himself four times over, and just… wander off with it.

Naruto frowned, clutching his knees, glancing sideways at the conked-out Yasha. He didn't want to wake him up again. He didn't like this constant being tired. It wasn't healthy. His friend would make himself sick with whatever he was doing.

He was obviously caring for someone, maybe a lot of people – that would explain the food he carried off. But then why would it be a problem if Naruto helped? Or if anyone found out he was caring?

But there wasn't anything. Nothing was possible. All he could do was endure with Yasha.

As usual, Yasha breathed almost soundlessly beside him, a tiny wet patch on his pillow from where he'd drooled. Naruto grinned at the familiar sight. Yasha was so composed most of the time – not stuck-up, but just _ready_, regardless of what was going to happen. Confidence, that was the word. Yasha wouldn't be caught _dead_ drooling on his pillow, but he did it some nights anyway. It was a little side of Yasha only Naruto saw, and the blond came to appreciate that.

Naruto inhaled and a familiar smell hit his nose. The blond wouldn't tell about the smell thing, but Yasha had quite an odd one, like burnt ash with a metal tang. It was oddly comforting, an adult smell.

But lately Yasha's air of confidence had waned into weariness. Yasha retained his determination, though, even when he was so tired he could barely think straight, he always kept a grim, fixated, determined look about him.

Naruto couldn't respect that part of him more, the determination to never give up on whatever plan he was carrying out.

With a long, drained sigh, Naruto reached over to Yasha's shoulder and started shaking it. Yasha growled something and mumbled into the pillow, turning over. "…minutes…."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Don't, Yasha-kun, we're going to be late soon."

"I don't care," Yasha grouched. Naruto was about to shake him again when he realised the other boy was staring at the ceiling, apparently fully awake already. He looked thoughtful.

"What's happened, Yasha-kun?" Naruto asked, a bit relieved he didn't have to keep him awake, but knowing there wasn't a good reason for this.

_'Ino has just gained some blackmail material on me,'_ Yasha considered saying, but instantly realised Naruto would turn on Ino every time she exploited his weakness – which would probably be often, unless Yasha told her the full truth about the kids to get the sympathy angle – and that would raise her suspicion of him. The fact she had blackmail material had to be a secret, simply because it was blackmail. Duh.

_'Half-asleep Yasha is stupid Yasha,'_ he sighed to himself. "I saved a girl yesterday."

"You did _what?!_" Naruto grabbed him excitedly. "Tell me what happened! Tell me, dattebayo!"

Yasha ignored his shaking, dark gaze fixed on the ceiling in distant thought. "It was Ino. I saved her from being raped."

Naruto's smile slid off his face and the energy petered out in an instant. "Oh," he mumbled, averting his eyes. "So… what happened?"

Yasha's response was calm and void of any feeling. "I came across her, someone was feeling her up and she was knocked out… so I killed him."

Naruto's head snapped back around and he stared at Yasha in shock. The brunette just carried on gazing at the ceiling, his eyes briefly flickering to the blue pair beside him. "You… killed them?"

"Yep," Yasha said factually with a faint tug of a smile. "People like that don't deserve to live. They'll just hurt others."

"Yeah, I guess, but…" Naruto trailed off, eyes still wide with shock. Last night, when he was still awake maybe… somewhere, Ino had been attacked and Yasha had… _killed_ someone. It was so otherworldly Naruto felt a bit dazed. "Did he… you know… die quickly?"

"No." Yasha scowled. "Scum like him don't deserve the _luxury_ of dying quickly."

There was silence for a few seconds.

Naruto frowned at him, tone reproving. "I don't like you when you're like this, Yasha-kun, dattebayo."

"The world isn't always as you like it, Naruto-kun," Yasha responded in turn, his gaze turned onto Naruto. The blond was transfixed by how enveloping it was. It just seemed to suck in light into pure darkness inside his eyes. "If you don't like the world, you're going to have to do some serious changes, as Hokage. It's not fun and games. The role as a ninja is to be a tool, a tool used for killing, in a world that lusts after torture, murder and pain."

"You're being morbid again, Yasha-kun," Naruto corrected, poking him on the cheek. "It's not as bad as you make it out."

Yasha sighed, before a reluctant grin tugged at his lips as the blond's poking continued. "Stop poking me!"

"Stop being all depressing, dattebayo!" Naruto shot right back. "It's not going to help anything."

Yasha rolled his eyes wearily. "At any rate… I need some more sleep, Naruto."

The blond noticed the missing honorific – occasionally his friend would miss it when he was speaking without his normal levels of forethought. "But today's Friday, we have Academy. Iruka will come looking for you at lunch."

"Tell him I'm recovering from a training practice with, uh…" Yasha thought for a bit, dredging up the name, "Maito Gai."

Naruto's face scrunched up at the unfamiliar name. _"Who?"_

"You don't need to know. And let me know if Ino's in class or not. But don't talk to her; if she talks to you don't tell her anything. Just run away or something."

"Run away?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. He flung his hands into the air dramatically. "And thus all of Yasha's problems were forever concluded."

"Suspended, more like." Yasha eyed him thoughtfully. "And since when did you learn words like 'concluded' and 'thus'?"

Naruto flushed, shoving him away. "Don't be rude! It was in the book you gave me two days ago. I read the kanji for it, dattebayo."

"My little pupil," Yasha cooed affectionately, ruffling the soft sunshine hair and grinned as the beetroot-faced boy knocked his hand away, spluttering. "…Can you handle that? Telling Iruka about Gai?"

"Well… I… I don't lie very easily, dattebayo," Naruto managed, his blush receding as he went into thankfully distracting thought. "I can tell Iruka and 'run away' from Ino if she's there, but… Iruka might not believe me and she might come looking for you."

"Doesn't really matter." Yasha waved his hand dismissively, "I won't be here lunch onwards. I'm gonna catch up on sleep, then I'm going out to the other place."

"Roger that." Naruto saluted him dutifully, getting up and starting to dress. Yasha rolled his eyes at the orange jumpsuit was donned, like always. "See you later, Yasha-kun."

"Alright. Take care. And… thanks, Naruto-kun."

The blond paused, halfway through putting on his top, shooting him an inquisitive look. Yasha absently noted taijutsu needed to be worked on. The brunette turned his gaze back to the ceiling. "I'm sorry about this. I know it's hard on you, having me absent all the time. But it won't be for much longer. Hopefully, a couple of weeks."

Naruto pulled his top on and frowned at him. "I don't mind that, dattebayo… it's not that you're gone, it's that I don't know where you are…" he sighed, grabbing his loose-fitting tracksuit top and pulling it on. "And I know it's dangerous, whatever you're doing. I know you're helping some people out, I've seen you take the food out and I never get to eat it."

"Observant of you." Yasha smiled faintly at him. "Anything else you've noticed?"

"You come back tired, but you don't have bruises or cuts, so it's not _too_ dangerous… but I don't know why you can't just let me help."

"I don't…" Yasha trailed off with a sigh. "I _can't_ let you, Naruto-kun. You're just too much of a target to ANBU. It's one thing if me with my dark chakra is sneaking around at night, but your chakra is huge. Someone will notice. And, like you said, you're bad at lying."

"I guess… but I can keep a secret. You know that."

A figure stepped onto the roof above, setting down in a meditative position, starting to focus hard. Natural chakra started to pool inside him, swirling into his native chakra.

"No, Naruto, you can't." Yasha sighed, holding up his hand to stop his protest. "You can _try_, and you'll try very hard, I know, but as someone who knows how to manipulate, I'm telling you… there are professionals even better than I am. They could get any secret you had out of you, without you saying a word. The best you can do is telling the truth in a misleading way."

Naruto scowled. He would question that, but Yasha had already proved it before. He huffed and turned away to the door. "I'll tell Iruka you were training with 'Maito Gai' and I'll run away if Ino starts asking me things."

"Yep. Thanks." Yasha grinned, turning over and snuggling back into bed.

"I'm off," Naruto murmured quietly, striding away.

Jiraiya watched him go, a smile tugging at his lips. His orange-coloured eyes turned downwards, his focus increasing. And there it was. Dark chakra, yes… and it did flow, true, although not quite 'strandy' as his notebook entries described… maybe the Shinigami had more experience with Death Release? Made sense, he was obviously an adult, whereas Yasha had supposedly been a chakra wielder all of four months or so.

It was definitely dark, and repulsive. He studied it thoroughly, as the tiny flows of insect swarms hid Yasha's real chakra. Despite his best efforts, there was simply too many insects around the chakra to see it anywhere but in the smallest parts of Yasha's chakra network.

However, as far as repulsive… _urgh_. It felt like his heart was stopping just from _looking_ at it. He turned his focus inward, analysing. Was there any dark insects blocking his brain chakra's networks and thus access to Shinigami memories?

…Nope. There was nothing. Curious; maybe the Shinigami had implanted some sort of limit marker, so memories couldn't be stored permanently, and then once he released it, all his insects returned and the memories from the marker and after vanished. Possible, but it would normally be noticeable.

Hold on. The tiniest trace of foreign chakra, _ever_ so slight. Less than a millimetre, right in his memory centre. It wasn't black, though. It was just a different colour to his own. Far too small to identify whose.

Jiraiya sighed defeatedly. Mental fiddling was the hardest type of seal, and that tiny amount was truly ridiculous to consider interfering with. He couldn't risk it unless the Shinigami had been fool enough to reveal his identity or do something horrible to Konoha – which was _possible_, he granted that, but not very probable. If he got a Yamanaka on it, there'd be S-Ranks spoiled all over the place; if he pulled the chakra out with a seal, it'd destroy the neuron circuits on the way out, causing who-knew-how-much damage.

With a start he realised Yasha's chakra… no, his _swarms_… had started leaking into the room, exploring slowly. There was no malice to it, just curiosity if anything, and he had read the report – a self-defence barrier or something while Yasha slept.

Jiraiya could sense Naruto, about half a mile away, and he had those insects swarms in him, which was disturbing – focused around the heart and the brain, although what they were changing in the brain wasn't obvious. Perhaps just trying to make him suspicious of Yasha like all people who met him were – but that would be oddly counter-intuitive.

And apparently the swarms infecting other people wasn't Yasha's conscious control, since Yasha, although a manipulator and a prodigy, had no idea where to begin when it came to brain modification, and access to the heart would be pointless for someone he took such close care of.

Still, it was heavily disturbing. Jiraiya would've flipped if he hadn't read every ANBU report on watching Naruto/Yasha and knew he cared deeply for Minato's brat; and the swarms hadn't hurt Naruto before, despite ample opportunity on the Hokage monument _and_ in the Hokage office when Yasha got pissed off.

Even so, it didn't sit right with him, carnivorous insects with a mind of their own hopping about willy-nilly into anybody they pleased. It was odd the Kyuubi's chakra wasn't frying the buggers as is. Maybe the Kyuubi didn't see them as a threat?

No, that didn't seem right either. The swarms were repulsive things – not _ugly_, they were too small for attributes like that… but just _looking_ at them made him feel like death was nearby.

It wasn't a good idea to keep them in Naruto, regardless of the Kyuubi's healing rate and the Bijū apparently ignoring them. Maybe there was a seal he could design to lock out the insects from infecting Naruto?

Conscious or not, having swarms in those vital organs meant if Yasha flipped and sent them some sort of Aburame-like remote command… Naruto could very well die instantly.

Jiraiya scratched his warty chin in thought, keeping an eye on the swarms below him to make sure none neared him. If the insects were attracted to Yasha's chakra, with a good sample, he could pull them into a storage seal. Flare some of Yasha's chakra to attract them from wherever they were trying to enter Naruto from, and then suction them into a storage dimension.

Hm, a bit inefficient, plus there was no trigger mechanism. It'd require a constant stream of Yasha's chakra, which was self-defeating – as soon as Yasha released chakra, he released insects too. Hmm…

* * *

Ino frowned. She'd come into class _very_ ready to jump right on top of Yasha and demand explanations. In fact, Inoichi had said it was fine if she stayed home today, but she insisted on 'thanking him'.

That had bought a half-hearted lecture about not trusting Yasha, and don't judge by appearances, and don't get emotionally committed…

But he wasn't even _there_. Ino fumed as she glared at his empty seat, Naruto twitching in the seat beside it. The blond outcast had shot her nervous looks every half an hour, so evidently he _was_ living with Yasha and knew something. She was no idiot.

But come lunch, she went to talk to Naruto, and he had vanished. Literally. No trace of him the entire lunch break; she even went and looked up all the trees that the boys sometimes hid in, but nothing. She even stayed a couple minutes' late to break, just trying to spot him, but somehow he managed to get back in class without even going through the door.

Some part of her was impressed by him, the dead-last apparently having hidden skills. To do so many pranks and get away, it's a bit obvious he would have good sneaking skills.

But frankly, Ino was _pissed_ by the end of the school day. She'd wasted eight hours _not _confronting Yasha. What was worse, she was _grounded_. She couldn't even look for him after school or her parents would _flip_.

_Kami_, he was an annoying idiot. He'd done this on _purpose_. She just _knew_ it. He hadn't been in trouble or Inoichi would've told her he was in T&amp;I – he wasn't crude enough to let his loving daughter do a fool's errand, even though he seemed to hold something against Yasha, despite the fact he didn't know Ino had been knocked out by him.

When the bell rang, Naruto was not going _anywhere_. She was going to use him as a proxy to threaten Yasha. After being grounded, the very _least_ Yasha could do was apologise. And this wasted school day was just icing on the cake. She was nearly _raped_, for Kami's sake! And it was all _his_ fault!

_'If he hadn't come back in time…'_ Her frown slipped off her face and she clenched her legs together. It could have gotten ugly _real_ fast.

_'Well, it did get pretty ugly, anyway…'_ She smiled humourlessly. The first thing she was going to ask him: what the hell _was _he? She nearly chucked his freaky eye thing into a memory lock from the extreme emotions it dredged up – horror, submission, surrender – it basically made her subconscious cower in fear just from remembering it.

Was that some really odd genjutsu? If it was, that didn't explain the sheer carnage he managed to do – a ninjutsu as well? She had caught a glimpse of him before he left the hospital room, and seeing the sheer amount of blood and the far-away expression on his face made her recoil. He even had his hands in his pockets as he left, his steps leaving bloody shoeprints, without a care in the world.

The fact the person gently rocking a tiny baby and staring up at the stars wistfully, and the person who killed someone so _violently_ he was covered in blood was completely unthinkable. Her brain just couldn't grasp it, even though it'd been a full day.

One way or another, Yasha was going to be in school next week. He had only been present three months out of the year – he wouldn't get away with much absent time, definitely not a full week. Prodigy or not, there was only so much one could do.

* * *

Anko shrugged. "Well, if his stink bothers you, change it. People can change."

"It's a defining trait of his. Some of his jutsu are based on it, too," the other woman explained the problem, flicking a stray lock of hair out of her eyes.

"So what?!" The snake mistress shrugged airily. "If he's _really_ in love with you, he'll do what you say."

"No, no, I want him to be his own person!"

"That's my point!" Anko chopped the air, biting two dango off her stick. Her voice was muffled as she went on, "If he's his own person, you've not changed anything – you might as well not be there at all!"

"Controlling him isn't exactly what I had in mind!" Kurenai protested.

Anko frowned. "It's not control if he still has…"

"Kurenai-san?"

"…a say." Anko spun around, glare ready on her face to fire at the fool who _dared_ interrupt her.

Kurenai turned as well. "Oh, Yasha-kun. What's up?"

"Sorry." The boy bowed to Anko with a quick smile, taking her aback. Most villagers treated her with disdain. "I want to know how to make someone forget something."

"You've only just managed a super-basic mind genjutsu and you want to do isolated memory erasure?!" Kurenai repeated in disbelief. "Why?!"

Yasha shrugged. "I done goofed."

The women just blinked at him. Anko pulled the last dango off her stick and chewed it, poking him with the sharp tip. "Tell her, gaki."

Yasha leaned out of range. "It's embarrassing. I don't wanna talk about it."

"Brat, if you ripped your trousers in front of class on the day you had no clean underwear, you just have to grow a pair and deal with it," Anko advised him flippantly, taking Kurenai's arm and leading her away from the interrupting brat.

"It's not that!" The brat had the audacity to follow them. "It's worse. It's the sort of thing that causes trauma."

"So it really _was_ underwear?" Anko grinned twistedly, turning back. Kurenai just blinked, feeling a bit excluded.

"No." Yasha looked around, clearing his throat nervously. The street was fairly busy and plenty of people could overhear.

"You can expect trauma as a shino-"

"It was _rape_!" The brunette snapped, his embarrassment switching to anger. "There was a girl I saved from being raped, and I want her to forget the whole thing!"

The two women (and a couple of people nearby) stared at him in shock.

"You saved a girl from being raped?" Kurenai repeated dubiously. "_Really?_ You're not even a genin."

"He's _really _a brat," Anko muttered disinterestedly off to the side, not buying the story at all.

Yasha dragged his fingers down his face in anguish. "Kurenai-san, I would _demand_ it, because it's important to me, but I don't have the right to. So I'd like to know if you have anything you want to give me."

Anko whistled softly. _'Whoever this kid was… hold on, Yasha? Where have I heard that name before…'_

Kurenai put her hand on the boy's shoulder sympathetically. "Yasha-kun, I'm sorry, but genjutsu doesn't work like that, and I don't know of any that even come _close_ to that. If I was going to invent a genjutsu, it would involve casting it on the person at the _start_ of the memory, cutting the connection between the conscious and memory in one direction, so only short-term memory is accessed. In short, it doesn't make them forget, it makes them never store it to remember."

Yasha nodded, his face falling. "Damnit."

Kurenai sighed. "If you _really_ need this, you'd have to talk to a Yamanaka. They won't teach you clan techniques, but they might do a job for you if the girl you're talking about agrees to it."

Yasha resisted the urge to roll his eyes. _Typical._ The one clan that could help him, and they were automatically excluded, unless he went behind Inoichi's back to a clan member. But the clan was small to begin with, there'd be like five jounin if he was lucky. And the odds of one of those five in that tight-knit clan being a betrayer, knowing full well their leader was a good guy… and that he could read minds… _and_ he was past head of T&amp;I? Nil.

"Well, thanks anyway, Kurenai-san." He turned away with a sigh.

"Hold on, brat." Anko grabbed him, putting him in a strangle-hold before Yasha could blink. "You interrupted me _twice_ now. You owe me."

Yasha winced. "_Seriously?_" he said wearily.

"_Hell_ yeah." Anko grinned. "So how you gonna make it up to me?"

"Uh, how about I buy you a nice top and we talk about the weather?" Yasha tried.

Anko blinked, and then sniggered, releasing him. "You know what, sure. Forget the weather talk; you go get me a nice top, one that _looks good_, and I'll let you off. Otherwise I'll find you and kick your little butt."

Yasha knelt down, inspecting her shoes. "That looks like it'd hurt," he mused. "Do you _have_ to?"

Anko was appreciating his non-linear thought pattern. No one had reacted this way to being threatened by her before. It was refreshing. "I've got a reputation to protect, brat."

"What reputation?" Yasha asked confusedly.

Anko's vein bulged and she used Hidden Snake Hands to tie him up – or tried to. The snakes came out of her sleeves, and reared up, hissing at Yasha. Anko was taken aback at their timidity.

Yasha grinned, tilting his head to the side. "Ah, snakes, shit, it's Anko-san?"

_'The sadistic woman who likes appearing creepy above all else and used to be Orochimaru's pupil? Hell no, I'm out!'_

With a burst of KI and chakra Yasha Henge'd into a lower weight and blurred away from the riled snake mistress, blowing through the crowd at such a speed those nearest to his path struggled to keep their balance from the suction effect.

Anko gaped at the sight as the snakes retreated back into her sleeves, before turning to stare at Kurenai. "Kurenai, you're teaching a brat? Why didn't you tell me?!"

Kurenai held her hands up placatingly. "It's only a _temporary_ thing, just until I get my genin team, and I'm trying to keep it low-key."

Anko raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Kurenai jabbed a finger after him. "_That kid_… is the one known as the 'KI alarm clock'."

"Really? Him?" Anko turned to look down the path cleared through the street as a few less-balanced citizens picked themselves up and the dust began to settle. "That explains a lot." She glared at her sleeves, although the snakes had already vanished into the seals on her arms. "Why these bitches didn't do as they're meant to is something else. Hell, I've used them through fire jutsu before."

Kurenai shrugged as they turned back to their original destination. "I heard even the Aburame kikaichu are having trouble with him…"

* * *

Naruto sighed with relief as class ended, and was about to bolt when Iruka called to him. "Naruto-kun, please wait for a minute."

He still tried to bolt, but the teacher was faster and caught him as he went out the door. "You're not in trouble," Iruka assured him, rolling his eyes, "which makes a change."

Naruto sighed and resigned himself to hear what Iruka had to say. The chuunin waited until the class had emptied and shut the door.

The teacher coughed and got straight to the point. "So, how is Yasha _really_? I've noticed he's been tired a lot recently. You and Sasuke can only cover for so long. I can understand Gai trains people hard, but that can't be the only reason. He's been tired for two weeks _straight_ now."

"I don't know how long it'll last," Naruto confessed glumly. "He's been staying up late…"

_'That part is true.'_

"…and I know he's been studying a lot."

Iruka blinked. "How _is_ your study going, Naruto-kun? Are you learning a lot?"

"Well, I know the syllabaries now," Naruto admitted in a mutter. "He's keeping me reading… I'm just reading all the time at home now. I have no time for pranks."

"That's good to hear," Iruka said heartedly, and Naruto gave him a dull look. "And you can read kanji too?"

Naruto shrugged unenthusiastically. "I read a book full of them a couple of times. That should be enough."

"You barely could do anything academic, Naruto, and now you're reaching above average in the class. Yasha, too," Iruka praised with a smile, making the blond give a faint one in response. "I might do another written test before the final exam, see how far you've progressed."

Naruto winced. "I guess that might be nice to know."

Iruka frowned. The normal Naruto would have grinned and insisted he would pass with flying colours, but this one looked… "Naruto, are you getting enough sleep?"

Naruto shook his head. "I can't sleep recently, either…"

_'Wait, I can't say Yasha's been out late…'_

"I've been studying hard too." Again, true, but not the main reason he stayed up late.

It was Yasha's way of saying the truth and making people presume something that was false. Since it wasn't really lying, Naruto didn't feel as guilty about doing it.

Iruka rolled his eyes with a sigh. "Fine, since you're reading the textbooks so hard, I'll overlook your sleepiness during class. But honestly, even though there's a lot to cram, being asleep during class when I'm available to guide you through things isn't wise. It's better to get a full night's sleep."

"I guess…" The blond sighed.

"Well, keep an eye on Yasha for me. Word has it he's been through a lot," Iruka said seriously.

"I will." Naruto grinned, grabbing his bag and hopping out the door. _'Maybe Yasha will actually be home today? He's slept in this time, and it's a weekend tomorrow…'_

Two hands clasped his shoulders _very_ firmly. He flinched, turning, not having to guess who it was.

Ino glared back at him, a deep and angry frown on her face. "I don't know what the _hell_ Yasha's playing at, but you tell him he owes me an apology. Hell, two now. And if he doesn't show up on Monday I'm going to kick his ass."

"I… err…" Naruto blinked in surprise as she let go. No questions? No investigation? No gratitude for Yasha? Girls were weird, but surely it wasn't _that_ weird to thank someone who saved you from something like… _that_. "Why does _he_ owe _you_ an apology?"

Ino frowned, hands on hips. "If he hasn't told you, then I'm not going to."

_'It's too good to spoil this early,'_ she thought wryly.

"But if I don't see on Monday there's gonna be hell to pay." She gave her best pissed-off face and stomped away.

Naruto blinked again, hastily looked around to see no one else in sight, and then scampered off.

* * *

Itachi coughed, clutching his chest. Damnit, he'd probably made himself sick with his intermittent sleeping patterns and nightmares. Hopefully just a cold.

_'Unlike last time when it was a terminal lung infection,'_ one sadistic part of his brain quipped cheerfully. He rolled his eyes at his thoughts and kept himself alert. _That_ illness had already been dealt with, thanks to Yūrei forcing him into a full medical inspection on a 'gut feeling'.

It had been two weeks since he left Konoha; if by some oddity the Hokage's faux-response teams _had_ tracked him, he'd give himself up. He was in no state to fight a team of hunter-nin ANBU; and sick or not, a civilian town was no place to hold a battle.

Root were trained to use every advantage though, and despite his threatening, Danzō may have acted anyway.

Soft footsteps approached from across the floor. Not completely suppressed, though. He tensed ready nonetheless as they… went past his room and to the next one in the hotel. A civilian.

He blinked, his vision blurring. His vision had been faltering for a while since he'd used Mangekyō; thankfully, his mediocre chakra sensing skills and sheer experience with projectiles were developed enough to make up the difference in loss of sight.

When Jiraiya appeared on the edge of his senses, he jolted in shock. The chakra level was suppressed to jounin, but no one had passed with even genin in this town so far. And no one could misplace that chakra.

The Hokage wasn't the type to repay loyalty with permanent silencing measures, but Jiraiya might not know the full truth. The Sannin was wandering a lot.

He suppressed his chakra, wincing. It would make his illness worse, without the chakra assisting the natural immune system, and in his flagging state it took all of his focus to suppress while sensing as well.

Jiraiya drew closer, and closer, entering the same hotel. A minute passed, and suddenly his chakra jumped backwards and there was a distant shattering sound. Itachi frowned as Jiraiya moved back to the desk, warily.

Then Jiraiya moved up the stairs, towards Itachi's room. Itachi frowned. Either Jiraiya knew he was here, or this was a huge bout of bad luck and he'd have to switch hotels while he was still this coherent lest the Sannin stumble onto a missing-nin.

As Jiraiya paused outside his door, Itachi had his answer. He waited until the knock before he released his chakra suppression. "Come in."

"I can't. I don't have the key," came the response, a smirk in his tone.

Itachi rolled his eyes and used his shuriken experience to flick the key under the door. Jiraiya wouldn't be this amicable without knowing the full truth about _that night_. Evidentially the crow he sent to the Hokage's monkey summon realm had delivered its message about where he was. Itachi had frankly had his doubts.

Jiraiya came in, analysed the room and Itachi still in his futon in a single sweeping glance, and shut the door behind him, locking it. "I heard what happened."

With several handseals Itachi didn't have his Sharingan activated to record, Jiraiya covered the room's perimeter in a slightly dark shade. The Toad Sannin smiled. "This is a barrier seal I learnt from an old friend. Sound only travels within a single line in the room."

"Let me guess, Yūrei?" Itachi offered.

Jiraiya's grin froze. "You've heard of him."

Itachi frowned back. Did Jiraiya actually know everything? "If you know what happened that night… you should know he was there, he assisted me."

Itachi kept quiet about Madara. If Madara _was_ who he said he was, he'd be even harder to track than Yūrei, having survived nearly a couple of centuries without detection by a single shinobi and remaining healthy enough to participate in wiping out a clan.

_My_ clan.

Itachi bit back tears. The illness was making him more emotional. As an S-Rank missing-nin, having weaknesses like that was suicidal.

"I _heard_, yes." Jiraiya's tone said he wasn't satisfied with merely what he had _heard_.

The Sannin sat down heavily, crossing his legs, still maintaining the barrier. "I'm frankly confused about Yūrei; it's true I never questioned his origins, but I never needed to. He was an ANBU member, and they don't share things like that. We studied fuuinjutsu together at one point."

Itachi nodded. "Danzō roped him into joining my massacre, but he didn't seem to have any qualms about it. He just said 'everyone dies eventually' and went ahead with it."

Jiraiya nodded back with a frown. "I should warn you about Yūrei; he's not who he says he is."

Itachi felt a pang of… horror? Pain? "Go on."

"He used genjutsu on the Hokage and the elder council to enter into ANBU around the end of the Second World War. The genjutsu _forces_ trust; you can detect it by seeing if you can even question his loyalty. If you can't, you're under it."

"I can believe it," Itachi said, frowning. "So I'm not under it. But, he's helped out Konoha many times. He hasn't failed a single mission. He even infiltrated Taki with Shisui, and they were on their way to Konoha to start an alliance last I heard."

Jiraiya gave a faint smile. "The alliance was successful, by the way. Despite the Uchiha clan's, well… it went ahead. Waterfalls and Leaves are now working together, but strictly on a non-military basis. If a war is declared, the nations have no obligation to each other either way."

The Uchiha nodded, processing it. "That makes sense. Taki is right beside Iwa, and they'd take it badly if Konoha had a military ally so close."

"The Hokage wants you to know he went ahead with it to honour the Uchiha clan's sacrifice. With regards to Yūrei… who knows, maybe he's a missing-nin from another country who managed to grab two Sharingan." Jiraiya shrugged. "Hiding in ANBU would be very bold, but if you could pull it off, it'd be the perfect hiding place. And he'd stay loyal as long as it took for his heat to die down."

Itachi shook his head, wincing at his headache. "No, he's got far too much proficiency in the Sharingan for that. I can give you his height and body size, but honestly, nothing else can be used to identify him. There's no missing-nin in other nations that have dual Sharingan. Not even loyal shinobi. You'll have to look pretty deep to find him; he's probably marked as KIA. With genjutsu on that level, he could do that; but then he could easily just hide as a civilian if no one knew he was even alive with the same genjutsu."

"It's odd, definitely." Jiraiya scratched his head. "Once the genjutsu was discovered, Yūrei was confronted. He's fled the village and been marked as a missing-nin, S-Rank, using his codename, and noted as Flee on Sight."

Itachi blinked. "Didn't the last…"

"Yep, the last to have _that_ was the Fourth Hokage." Jiraiya gave him a tired look. "And now it's given to some random stealth and assassination expert who can apparently wield all five elements with ease, has dual Sharingan and Kage-level genjutsu. Not to mention he's a fuuinjutsu master. But frankly his assassination skills are what makes him Flee on Sight."

"Is the Hokage going to track him down?" Itachi asked curiously. "Genjutsu on the leading ranks is akin to mutiny."

"Currently we're using our best Yamanaka to clean up the minds of those infected, but it's hard slog. Even Inoichi is struggling to free the first person. He hasn't found anything that works yet."

"Who are you testing it on first, out of interest?" The Uchiha asked idly.

Jiraiya gave him an analysing look. "One of the ANBU. You needn't know who, but he's one of the older ones. Yūrei used his genjutsu on the ANBU around when he joined their ranks, too. If there's a self-defence measure built into the genjutsu… you could end up with a vegetable."

"And then, of course, Yūrei's going to be tracked, isn't he." Itachi sighed.

"We've got our ANBU forces cut in half if we try to do that; we can only use the newer recruits, which are no match for him. And frankly, Inoichi is the one leading the investigation. It can't be the elder council or Sensei, or they end up trying to call it off early. They just trust him too much."

Itachi tutted, rolling onto his side and gazing off out the window. "So what do you want me to do if I do see him?"

Jiraiya blinked, "I don't think you'll be able to attack him, so just… watch him, report where he is. From now on, until the Hokage says otherwise, I'll be giving you tasks."

Itachi broke into a coughing fit, covering up his morbid laughter. "And what is my first task, Jiraiya? It's not tracking Yūrei, is it?"

"Indeed not. There's a group called the Akatsuki…"

* * *

A peaceful café near the edge of town.

It would be more relaxing if Itachi wasn't an S-Rank wanted nin, as of two weeks ago. Now he barely felt safe without Sharingan activated, but unfortunately, his illness was only just clearing up, and Sharingan was a very obvious indicator as to who he was. Two good reasons to not activate them.

Itachi coughed into his herbal tea, trying his best to relax and anchor himself.

"You look like hell," someone said with a smirk from the empty seat in front of him.

Itachi suppressed the instinct to jump, activating his Sharingan to see a figure sitting passively. "Is that you?"

An ANBU-masked figure appeared in front of him, his black mask reflecting only the smallest glimmer of light. "Of course it's 'me'. No matter who you ask that question to, it'll be a yes, wouldn't it?"

Itachi's heartrate was rocketing out of control. An assassination expert was sat right beside him, dual Sharingan staring straight at him.

"Keep your Sharingan activated, whatever helps you feel comfortable, Itachi-san."

"Sir?" The waitress beelining around the tables paused and stared at the masked shinobi warily.

"Yes, I'll have some milk tea, and some of those wafer biscuits," Yūrei said airily.

"Uh… hai," she said, striding off a bit too quickly. Itachi watched, perplexed. '_He isn't hiding who he was. He doesn't care about being seen?' _As normal, under his clothes not a trace of chakra could be seen.

"I've heard you're looking for a place in the Akatsuki, Itachi-san."

"Now who told you that?" Itachi deflected carelessly.

"A little birdie, I think the saying goes," the grating, smooth voice said calmly. Throughout the whole conversation he'd seemed amused.

Itachi knew he was dead, if Yūrei so wanted it. Yūrei had approached him here, which meant he had time to set up the entire environment with whatever traps he wanted. That was why he was confident about the civilians.

It was the most basic of rules: don't give time to a fuuinjutsu master.

Itachi only had a chance if he ambushed Yūrei, vice versa meant he was almost definitely dead. The only thing Yūrei hadn't seen was Itachi's Susano'o, and Yūrei could just outlast him with his sickness.

Itachi began to slowly build chakra for an Izanagi.

Yūrei smirked under his mask. "Although I think Orochimaru would more than welcome you. He has his desires set on Sharingan, as it would appear."

"You're in Akatsuki," Itachi realised with an internalised jolt of fear as Yūrei leant back to show red clouds with white lining on his cloak.

"Well, _watching_ them, as you were or will be tasked. But since I'm not trustworthy to Konoha," the man chuckled morbidly, "you might as well join in the fun. Currently it's just a collection service; we're gathering bounties for Kami-knows-what."

"Have you seen your bounty?" Itachi slapped his Bingo book on the table, courtesy of Jiraiya.

Yūrei picked it up, flipping through the pages. He smirked at his masked picture. "Flee on Sight. It's very quaint. And enough money for someone to retire in a high-class estate… tempting. I might hand myself in."

Itachi sat forwards, despite his instincts wanting him to run, clasping his hands together – loosely, lest it be mistaken for a Snake seal. "Orochimaru is in Akatsuki? Why haven't you told Konoha?"

Yūrei looked back up, sliding the book back. With his Sharingan, he didn't need more than one look at all the pages. "For all my skills, tracking Jiraiya is not one of them. All other people will flee on sight, and my genjutsu makes whoever I talk to receive a trip to T&amp;I. And I can hardly approach Konoha directly; it's being watched by Akatsuki."

"Konoha's being watched by Akatsuki?" Itachi said with horror.

Yūrei waved his arm dismissively. "Not as closely as you're thinking; they're not in the high ranks of the village, just civilians. But all the major villages are being watched for major changes; preparations for war and the like."

"You're giving away a lot of information very freely, Yūrei-san," Itachi said cautiously.

Yūrei smiled back, although only the eye crease showed it. "I've not given a single bit of information to Akatsuki other than the basics of my origin. I was in ANBU, etc. etc., I know the Konoha patrol routes. They don't know about the trust genjutsu, which I'm aware you've been told of."

"How do you know that?"

The waitress came back with a plate in hand. Yūrei smiled. "Thanks."

He turned back to Itachi as she walked off hurriedly. "Well, Jiraiya visits Konoha after I'm ousted for it, he'll definitely be told of me. He visits you, and warns you, and that explains the Bingo Book with me in it."

Itachi was still puzzled. "How can you be here if you're in Akatsuki?"

Yūrei smirked again. "Why, I'm here to invite you, Itachi-san. You want to infiltrate Akatsuki, all you need to do is go to Ame, where the rain is. Just wait at the border of the rain, someone will come to see you. I'll pass my recommendation for you."

The seventeen-year-old frowned. "Yes, and thanks, I suppose… but why aren't you being watched by Akatsuki too?"

Yūrei blinked. "Oh… well, I can clone myself without anyone seeing the difference – it's because I have no visible chakra anyway. I'm with Kakuzu; he's cashing in on the bounty of a person we killed."

"A person?" Itachi probed.

"No one you know, and no one inside Konoha," Yūrei said airily, then sat forward with a grin. "Oh, and by the way, I have received info on Sasuke for you."

Itachi's eyes narrowed dangerously, and he was pleased to note he had just hit enough chakra for Izanagi. "Go on."

"Well, he broke out of your Tsukuyomi's trauma effects early, thanks to Yasha. He's no longer a cheerful little boy, he's all _morbid_ now," Yūrei finished sounding a bit down.

Itachi's chakra began to stir up and his tone went icy. "Don't _act_ like there was a better way for him."

Yūrei spread his hands, his tone factual. "No matter how you look at it, what you did was traumatic. The illusion was icing on the cake."

Itachi stood up, slamming his hands on the table with a loud rattle of cutlery. "Don't you _dare_ look at me like you're any better!"

Yūrei frowned, glancing around at the disturbed civilians, raising his voice. "Go to sleep."

There was thumping sounds all around as the civilians slumped to the ground, making Itachi start. The masked man leant forward, gloved hands loosely clasping together. "It's not like that. I'm not saying you could've done better. I could've slaughtered the entire population of Konoha. It's a solution, there's still no coup, but it's not _better_."

Itachi frowned at him confusedly, slumping back in his seat, a bit relieved Yūrei wasn't willing to approach him. "What jutsu was that?"

Yūrei leant back, waving his hand dismissively. "A seal, a shadow clone chucked it on the roof before I got here, and was listening in. He was also maintaining a barrier collision seal; if it's crossed by someone, the clone dispels, I get notified."

"Right… but how did you exclude me?" Itachi asked, rubbing his face tiredly.

Yūrei shrugged. "It's just a mild genjutsu. It takes effect only on people with low chakra levels. My own level doesn't factor in. You'll only feel it as low-level lethargy, even if your Sharingan didn't see through it."

"Yūrei, you've gotten people all over your case, dangerous people. What exactly _is_ your level under all those masks?" Itachi asked plainly.

Yūrei hummed in thought. "High enough to give someone a Sannin a run for his money, I'll bet. And there are some wide-radius brain-death seals I've got written out. Luckily I never told Danzō about them," he sighed, hand reaching under his mask and scratching stubble. "Last thing I want is making this war too easy for people."

The Uchiha blinked, his Sharingan seeing nothing under the mask, but he could follow the movement of the tendons of the wrist well enough to get a rough outline of Yūrei's face. Not enough to identify him unmasked, but it was a start. "What war?"

Yūrei's scratching paused. He spoke with a knowing smirk in his tone. "We're all in a war, Itachi-san. But there's no way any of these people deserve to die. I'll defend my country, and my village, but I won't partake in genocide."

Itachi frowned. "You already did."

"I think you'll find I _didn't_." Yūrei dropped his hand and gazed at him pointedly.

Itachi froze as his suspicion was confirmed. "So you knew about Yasha, saving them. I thought as much. Is that why you chose the civilian section?"

"Yes; I was tasked on night patrols when he entered; I followed a hunch and found out what he was up to when he gave that message to Shisui," Yūrei explained simply. "Yep, seven kids were spared. I saw them before I left. I couldn't do much more than open the path for him; otherwise he'd get suspicious and too jumpy to handle them."

"Why did someone of your calibre agree to a massacre?" Itachi demanded, still baffled why Yūrei had no regret for it, when he clearly had power to genjutsu peace. "They were your brethren! Uchiha!"

"Itachi-san…" Yūrei's voice went crystal cold. "They are warmongers, and not people I deem… _brethren_. People, such as yourself, people who want peace, are people _I_ deem brethren.

"Those others? We can get along, we can share jokes, we may have many good memories I will cherish, but ultimately, I will not hesitate to drive my blade through their hearts… just as _you_ did. They are mentally sick, but even the sick have their normalcy and their own moments of goodness."

Itachi could hardly believe his ears. "Sick…? You're talking about entire _generations_ of people!"

Yūrei frowned. "Yes, generations – the _world_ itself is sick, Itachi-san. Look at what we had to do, look at what Sasuke had to deal with at just _twelve years old_. He deserved better."

There was another pause. Itachi knew he had to argue that, but he couldn't either way. Agreeing war was right was against his morality and he knew shinobi history well enough.

"Well, it's been fun chatting, Itachi-san," Yūrei said with a sigh, standing up abruptly. "I have to get back to Kakuzu soon – he's wrapping things up at his end. Just go to Ame if you want to find Akatsuki, but whatever you do, don't look like you're attacking. The leader of Akatsuki has a god complex, and he's immensely powerful; he won't hesitate to make an example of you. Oh, and give it a couple of weeks, don't make it too obvious you heard from me. I'll keep you informed on Sasuke and Yasha's group as I hear it."

"Wait!" Itachi called, standing back up quickly.

Yūrei paused at the door, glancing back quizzically. "Hmm?"

Itachi scrambled for what to say. His mind was full of all sorts of topics: Sasuke, Yasha, the saved Uchiha kids, the massacre, Yūrei's true motives, who he was, his leader, Akatsuki… what should he ask? What was the most important right now?

He spoke urgently, sensing this would be the last he would see of his old ANBU teammate for a good while. "Where did you come from? What is your real name?"

Yūrei smiled under his mask. "I can't tell you that, Itachi. It's too dangerous, for both of us. But…" he glanced around quickly, the smile fading. "The Third Shinobi War was ended by the Fourth Hokage. _Everyone_ remembers that."

His gaze flickered to the elder Uchiha. "But, the _Second_ Shinobi War? **_I_** was the reason it ended."

And with that, he stepped out, flashed his hand into a seal, and vanished.

* * *

**AN:** Yeah… Yūrei is _not_ someone you want to mess with. If he finds out Orochimaru is the one who caused him to be booted out of Konoha, there is going to be an _epic_ battle. :D

Post comments! I'm back to self-employment mode, with the cold fanfiction-doesn't-help-my-income mindset, so reviews will push me to add more chapters. Chapters may take 4 weeks otherwise; I'm considering cutting them down but with this one I couldn't find a good place to end it that didn't feel a bit underdeveloped.

I hope you guys enjoyed that.


	29. Mind games

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 29: Mind games_**

* * *

**AN:** I've done some spell-checking and rewording on chapters 1-10. Will do 11-20 at some point, too.  
I'm currently writing two programs that will interest you fanfiction writers a lot, but I'm gonna leave those in the dark for now…

Ino's just threatened Yasha to get him to visit her, but we'll see what she does with the blackmail material when he's in her sights.

And it was revealed Yūrei has no patience or love for anyone who likes war, and was the main reason the Second Shinobi War ended, and that Jiraiya's tracking down the Shinigami and Yūrei himself. He confronted Itachi and informed him how to gain access to Akatsuki.

The story resumes with Inoichi, attempting to crack open the trust genjutsu and find a way to release it.

* * *

"So, Lion, you have suspended all of your mental restraints? Do you have any passkeys you will need to tell me?"

"The red tree's third branch on the right of the trunk. Touch it twice, then go forward three steps and back two, rotate three full circles anticlockwise, and you should be in."

"Right. Red tree's third branch, on the right of the trunk, touch twice, forward three steps, back two, rotate three full circles anticlockwise."

"Hai." Lion nodded shortly.

"Let's start," Inoichi said, making seals carefully, then placing his hand on his head. As a precaution he was going in with full recovery and a slower pace; he was expecting no traps from Yūrei, but who knew how strong that genjutsu really was.

What was even more impressive was Lion's mental defences were the standard level for ANBU, yet Yūrei had circumvented the entire thing, for 20-50 ANBU (including the KIA).

He hopped into the mindscape, a huge forest stretching in all directions, and made a beeline to the red tree, following the instructions. He passed several rather dark holes, and a couple of doors in the trees, all of which would be traps. Standard ANBU, still.

As he spun the last time, the mindscape changed, and a scroll appeared in front of him. He made some seals and put his hands on them, smiling as it began to unravel unimpeded.

"I need anything on Yūrei," he chanted to himself.

There was one, the most prominent one. Inoichi made a few hand seals and hopped into it.

"GET DOWN!"

"Yūrei, the fuck are you doing?" Lion called as a figure passed him, black mask barely visible if it wasn't for the glowing Sharingan.

"I'll buy some time, you idiots retreat!" The figure barked.

Lion paused on the branch. "You're the one with the intel, _you_ get the fuck back!"

"Don't you trust me?!" Yūrei snapped, turning around. Inoichi watched as his Sharingan glowed, one eye m**d**o**o**r**i**p**n**h**g**i**n**n**o**g**thing**.

The Yamanaka frowned. _'A Sharingan genjutsu?'_

Lion's brain spluttered a bit as his feelings jumped around, but he remained oblivious. "Fine, I trust you! But you better get your ass out alive!"

"Don't you worry about me. Keep Hound safe!" Yūrei barked, jumping forward towards a chakra-sized tidal wave, a fireball appearing in front of him.

"Fucking trying to be a hero and breaking protocol…" Lion grouched, diving forward. He made it five jumps before a figure passed him, going backwards. He turned, snapping his gaze – Hound mask. "Oi, Hound, get back and retreat! Yūrei's covering us!"

"I'm not gonna leave someone behind!" Hound snapped over his shoulder.

"For _fuck's_ sake, is anyone on this _fucking_ team listening to me?!" Lion flung his hands up in the air rather unprofessionally as he burned chakra like water, skidding to a halt and flinging himself backwards to follow Kakashi back.

The two arrived just in time to see the pursuers start to surround him. Kakashi and Lion were about to dive in when Kakashi shot his arm out to block him. "Wait!"

At that point even Lion could feel a chill rising up his spine as the air around Yūrei began to crackle with chakra.

The man raised both palms. "Futon: Great Breakthrough!"

Half the trees that side were immediately shredded, scattering the pursuers and brutally taking out a good portion of them.

Inoichi gaped. That had to be an A-Rank application with that radius, that was a good 120 degrees wide, and he could still see the trees being torn a hundred feet away.

Some of the enemies tried to defend by jumping over, flinging weapons, but Yūrei just spun and gazed at them, Sharingan glowing as he tracked their movements.

"Katon: Great Fireball Technique!" Yūrei made a single hand sign and blew a fireball that was a good 60 feet in diameter, straight towards the ones still in the air. Inoichi's jaw dropped – that had to be A-Rank. A half hand seal for _that_? ANBU were something else.

As the remainder of the pursuers rounded on him, the ones lucky enough to escape both techniques, Yūrei bit his thumb, clasping his hands into a Snake, and slamming both of them onto the ground, not in Lion's vision. "Doton: Sieve!"

Immediately the entire environment began to crack and vibrate so strongly it was all Lion could do to hold onto the tree, which began to uproot itself, cracks spreading all around the tree's roots.

Yūrei gave them a cursory glance as the trees began to screech in protest and snap, half the remaining forest starting to topple. Leaves, twigs and dust flew everywhere, reducing visibility to almost nothing in seconds. It was utter _chaos_.

Kakashi and Lion were by Yūrei's side as soon as they regained their footing, deflecting some well-aimed kunai. Yūrei struggled for breath. "I think I'll let you guys have this one."

_'This one? There's only five targets left,'_ Lion thought to himself, and Inoichi silently agreed with him.

Kakashi formed a Raikiri and dived forward into the dust and leaves, towards the kunais' origin, while Lion covered Yūrei, flattening two ninja who risked taijutsu within a few seconds. "This mission was a screw-up from the start, eh Yūrei?"

"I … _huff_… have a feeling there's… _huff_… a bandaged guy to… _huff_… thank for that," Yūrei muttered amongst his breathing, so quietly Inoichi could barely hear it even when he extrapolated the memory's sound and knelt an inch from the ANBU's mouth. Lion hadn't heard it originally.

Inoichi frowned. _'So, Yūrei didn't trust Danzō, or was wary of him – regardless of how Yūrei got to that conclusion, it was his first suggestion. Interesting.'_

The next thing Yūrei said was regular volume. "Don't… _huff_… worry, I'll make… _huff_… sure the intel's…. _huff_… better next time."

"No worries, Cap'n. We saw this one through and it's a success, ain't it?"

Yūrei shrugged, wearily. "I suppose, but I'm not going to be able to rest until we get home. That'll be two days from now. What I would do to use Hiraishin right now…"

"I know what you mean." Lion nodded, scanning around quickly. "I'd kill for a soft bed right now."

"Heh, I think you already have." Yūrei grinned behind his mask, dual Sharingan squinting.

_'So, this is the mission Kakashi talked about.'_ Inoichi smiled. _'There's no doubt Yūrei is impressive; three different A-Rank techniques, all in different elements.'_

_'Hold on… something is wrong with that scene…'_ Inoichi rolled the scene back a bit.

_'Ah, genjutsu. Right there, in Yūrei's Sharingan, as he grinned. Another genjutsu, but much more minor. Yūrei cast a genjutsu __**then**__ as well? Even as he caught his breath from three A-Ranks in succession?'_

Inoichi had no way to undo the genjutsu, even a minor one – if it was experienced the memory would hold it the way it was experienced. Likewise, if broken, it'd hold it broken. But he could notice it.

_'So, weak one aside for now, Yūrei cast a strong genjutsu, from his Sharingan. His genjutsu seems mainly to originate from his eyes.' _Inoichi paused, rewinding the memory to before Yūrei's fight.

The Sharingan with the 'don't you trust me statement' definitely did something, but a genjutsu hid _what_. The memory acknowledged that the eyes had a genjutsu attached to it; but gazing at a Sharingan during a battle, even a friendly one, you could expect an automatic genjutsu.

The trust genjutsu must've hidden what the Sharingan was doing, or Yūrei placed two at once…

There was about half a second of memory that was blurred over. Inoichi had missed it the first time, since Lion's memory simply didn't show it; it was like watching a film that had jumped a little visually, but without the obvious audio cues to reveal it. There was just a foot or so of foliage that was passed a _bit_ too quickly.

Inoichi rewound, and focused closely. As Yūrei turned, his Sharingan did _something_, and the genjutsu was cast; and then the scene lost half a second. Not a significant amount of time, so the genjutsu's command must've been really simple; maybe just 'trust me'? But for that half a second, there was no genuine visual or audio. The mind compensated for the whole gap with guessing, as it would – the brain was very inclined to make shortcuts, and then compensate for missing data.

The genjutsu was obvious, but still subtle. You would find it if you were looking for it, but a cursory glance through the memories wouldn't give you anything. The scene didn't go blank, it just blurred, so no wonder Lion wouldn't notice it; he was moving so fast everything was blurring anyway.

If Inoichi hadn't entered in a protected mode, where nothing could be transmitted back to his real mind easily, this would be reckless, but he had, so the Yamanaka focused, making more hand seals, forcing himself to manifest within that half-second, to experience it, to find out what Yūrei said…

It didn't work.

He used memory extrapolation on the milliseconds leading up to it…

It didn't work.

He sat in the last few milliseconds surrounding it, and played forward at snail's pace, extending every bodily sense…

It didn't work.

"Yūrei, why do you have to be so difficult?" Inoichi growled.

* * *

Yasha scratched his temple in puzzlement. "You say she _threatened_ me?"

"Uh-huh," Naruto concurred.

"And she said on _Monday_?" Yasha continued slowly.

"Uh-huh," the blond repeated, nodding his head furiously. "She says she wants an apology."

Yasha rolled his eyes. "She _would_."

He started walking back to his and Naruto's home, mind whirring. Thankfully the extra sleep had been just what he needed to get his thoughts straight, although Keito had difficulty coping on his own, he only woke up once.

So, Ino saw enough to make her curious – she wouldn't spill until she'd figured out the full truth. Before she did, Yasha either had to stop her from finding that out, or prevent her from talking.

He could still kill her, of course, but he wouldn't do that. In fairness, if him and Ino had switched places, he would have investigated, and held it over her head; he was all about control after all. Yasha in Ino's place wouldn't be easily persuaded to forgo full investigation, and he'd go behind Ino's back to do it if necessary.

However, she wanted to see him Monday… that was odd. Why not _now_, after school? True, Naruto had only caught up to him about 7pm, two hours after school ended, but Ino would wait that long. Impatiently, but she would. So she wasn't able to stay out after school or over the weekend, which meant…

Yasha snorted. Inoichi must have grounded her, solving Yasha's problem of Ino investigating him. She didn't have the chakra nor knowledge for a shadow clone and her normal routes were nowhere near the kids' place. With a mind-reading dad, and a chakra sensor at that, if she _did_ go and investigate and got back late, he'd know what she was doing; and Inoichi didn't trust Yasha, so he'd probably insist on looking into her mind.

So she was being cautious about investigating – the idea of blackmail must _really_ appeal to her.

Naruto was silently walking beside him and watching his expressions with a small frown, trying to read what was going on in that head of his.

Yasha pursed his lips. Blackmail was still an issue, but there was relatively no chance of it affecting the kids – depending on how long Ino was grounded for, of course.

Going into a dodgy part of town after lying about where you were, getting nearly raped and being in a gruesome murder scene? An over-protective dad would ground her for _years_. Yasha grinned; Inoichi had definitely solved half the Ino problem.

She wouldn't spill the secret until she investigated, unless Yasha _really_ ticked her off, to the point she didn't care anymore.

However, the other half of the Ino problem was her blackmail. She had two things over him; the fact it was him who knocked her out, and the kids he was hiding. She could reveal the knockout with relatively small fallout on her side, but it would definitely reveal Yasha was hiding something. It would be fallout that'd reach Inoichi's ears, and Yasha would rather not have that; a trip to T&amp;I would be near-guaranteed, even though they had no way to make him stay without Naruto flipping out.

If Ino ever revealed the knockout material, it was a big warning sign she didn't feel in control of him enough.

With curbing her blackmail exploits, he had some ideas. Ino was one of those popular girls; reputation was everything to her, which meant she'd be susceptible to public embarrassment. If she gave a request Yasha didn't want to do, he'd protest like it was childish, and embarrass her into no longer wanting it.

However, being a mind clan heiress, she probably knew a shedload about how to manipulate as well. It was like two chessmasters sitting down to play; two manipulators trying to control each other.

Yasha had a benefit, though; Ino didn't know how good he was at manipulating, but _he_ knew about _her_. The instruction scroll told him about the Yamanaka mind techniques, and that their repertoire was mental attacks and manipulating. He had an idea of what he was up against, whereas she just thought she was up against a prodigy. A scary prodigy.

She had no idea he was an experienced manipulator, and he had to play that advantage as much as possible.

Actually, come to think of it, if Inoichi _had_ been the one in the T&amp;I chamber during Yasha's session a few months ago, he would know Yasha was a manipulator. And he could warn Ino.

But there was no way to tell Ino that (with any sort of credibility) unless Inoichi also told her _why_ he knew that; that Yasha had been in T&amp;I. He wouldn't lie to his daughter, true, but having the ability to manipulate was capitalised on by default after time. It was so _easy_ to control some people.

Like the Uzumaki quietly walking beside him, watching for his commands. Step back four months, and Naruto was a hyperactive, uneducated idiot, running about doing whatever his stunted mind came up with; now he was fairly well-read and obedient to what Yasha wanted, despite having been told that his friend manipulated anyone he was nearby.

Naruto's default way of getting close to someone was to be cheerful and to warm up to them the way they wanted. He didn't consciously recognise it, but his hyperactive nature could become a subdued one in seconds, like it was now – because Yasha wanted it. The blond now had a serious mode.

On the other hand, four months ago he was getting beaten on by the orphanage carers, had little by way of friends, nowhere to live, and couldn't read or write.

Yasha certainly didn't feel guilty about it, to be honest. Minions were fine, but he liked intelligent and happy minions. Not only did it make them more loyal, could even make them friends. Yasha coughed, and corrected himself: Not only did it make them more loyal, it took a load off his conscience. He could ignore his conscience, but it was an effort that kept having to be redone.

That was why he'd rather not kill Ino. Death was a permanent measure; he'd be permanently worried about someone finding out, unless he was _absolutely 100% perfect_ with his execution. A single loose hair, a scent trail…

_'Hold on. Last night, wouldn't I have a scent trail? Wouldn't it lead back to the kids' place?' _Yasha froze. '_If that were the case…' _He blinked._ 'Well, then the kids have been discovered already, no two ways about it.'_

There had been two ANBU watching him in the hospital, and Inoichi had been fetched by a third – which left just one ANBU in the squad, who would have to watch the remains so no civilians started waltzing over them and polluting the scene.

The fourth could've shadow-cloned, true, but following scent trails when all the participants of a scene were still _there_ was unnecessary. They had a suspect, a victim and a witness; that was enough, particularly in a village with mind-readers. There was a good chance they hadn't done something that paranoid. And for that matter, Yasha's impromptu rage-mode (as he now dubbed it) could've covered up his scent by the sheer mess he made.

Well, if the Hokage stopped by to talk about the Uchiha massacre or Yasha woke up in T&amp;I tomorrow, Yasha would know they did follow the trail. No point fretting about things that could've happened.

Yasha frowned. He had to be better than that.

"You keep making weird faces," Naruto informed him helpfully.

Yasha shoved him away. "Shuddup, I'm thinking."

* * *

"You want me to draw you on the blackboard?" Yasha repeated dubiously.

Ino nodded, forcing her smile to remain despite Yasha's incredulous look.

"Fine, but I can't draw to save a fish," the brunette said with a shrug. _'At least her first request wasn't too bizarre.'_

Grabbing a chalk, he walked up to the board, starting to scribble beside Iruka, who didn't notice him for a couple of seconds. The teacher blinked at him, stunned for a moment. Yasha was just beginning to add the hair when Iruka swiped at him with an eraser, which he dodged, still scribbling somewhat messily.

"Now class, what we have here is a classic domination syndrome," Yasha said empathetically as he dodged the steadily faster swipes. "An alpha male – whoa, watch it – relationship. Iruka is trying to establish his dominance so he can get as many females as possible."

"No, that's not…" Iruka blinked. "Yasha, get back to your seat."

Yasha ignored him, still speaking in a lecturing tone. "This is a dominance pattern known as oppression of the weak. What follows is threatening or outwitting."

"If you don't get back now…" Iruka blinked again as he realised he couldn't do anything without Yasha having predicted him.

The boy grinned at him. "Finally, we have increased aggression or surrender."

"Stop that!" Iruka snapped. "Just get back to your seat!"

"Bargaining may be possible unless the person already has a weak grip on their authority status," Yasha continued.

"No, we're _not_ bargaining, and if you say another word you're in detention," the teacher barked. He watched expectantly for another comeback, but Yasha didn't say anything, just continued scribbling. "Back to your seat."

Yasha gave one final swipe and threw the chalk to the sensei, striding back to his seat, revealing a basic but rather accurate profile of Ino. He inspected it as he got back in his seat, the sensei glaring at him. All that chakra control exercises had paid off, and he wouldn't forget a single detail of someone who had blackmail material on him.

"I meant do it during lunch, baka," Ino informed him, rolling her eyes.

Yasha shrugged, having not even considered that, and bluffed out of it. "I thought it was more romantic to do in front of everyone. You like it?"

Ino inspected it, shrugging. "It's alright."

"Awesome." Yasha turned back to the board, where Iruka still hadn't erased the drawing.

Naruto frowned at the drawing for a bit. "Why do you let her push you around?" he asked, not for the first time.

"Secret." Yasha grinned at him, although his true feelings about the matter warranted a grimace.

And then the bell for lunch rang.

Ino grinned as she inspected the picture closer up, flouncing off with a bit of a skip in her step, making her victim roll his eyes.

Naruto made a face at what Yasha bought out from his bag. "Store bento again?"

"Most people have bento, knucklehead. We keep eating fifty bowls of ramen and we won't _have _a home," Yasha said half-seriously.

The blond raised his hands in surrender. He liked Yasha's bento more than the store-brought ones, that was all. "Fine, fine. What's in it?"

"Something edible," Yasha answered helpfully. He hesitated. "Maybe."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Wow, you make it seem _so_ attractive."

Yasha began to speak when Ino called over to them loudly. "Yasha-kun, let's eat lunch together!"

Yasha rolled his eyes in plain view of her, prompting a scowl and a follow-up yell. "Don't look at me like that!"

"What? This is my normal face," Yasha assured her.

"It's true," Naruto interjected. "He's always rolling his eyes."

"Ooh, sassy." Yasha grinned, jabbing him in the ribs with his elbow and making the blond yelp.

Ino blinked at the camaraderie. "So you two live together?"

Yasha shrugged. "Pretty much. We're both orphans, so we don't have much to go on."

"Oh." Ino's desire to control Yasha wilted a little. She'd heard both facts, but not really put them together like that.

Naruto saw the distraction and grinned, grabbing Yasha by his collar. "Anyway, let's go eat!" He exclaimed, pulling Yasha away.

"Damnit -_gak!_\- Naruto this is a new _–hak!-_ shirt!" Yasha protested.

The two made their way up a tree and managed to eat about a quarter of it alone (with no girls) until Ino found them again, complete with a gaggle of Yasha's fangirls.

"What are you doing up there, Yasha-kun?" Ino called.

"Enjoying the view," he called back.

He plastered on a lopsided grin as he laid belly-first on the branch, gazing down at the group of girls solidly. "And I must say, the views are just beautiful." He smiled with a wink.

Out of the eight girls, only three stayed conscious from sudden nosebleeds.

* * *

Sometime later, once they had recovered, Ino turned back to him. "Yasha-kun, can you come down?"

Yasha dangled off the branch and crossed his arms, hanging by his legs. "Why?"

The girls' looks were fixated on the brunette's t-shirt, waiting for sweet gravity to pull it down, but Yasha was using a dribble of chakra and his arms to cover himself.

Ino smothered her blush. "We were going to eat lunch together."

Yasha shrugged. "I was down for it, but you ran off."

"Ha! Like Yasha-kun would want to eat with _you!"_ Sakura announced her entry, making the half-dazed group part to admit her.

"And why _wouldn't_ he?" Ino growled back.

Naruto peered down from higher branches, covering up his own blush at Sakura, and wondering what Yasha was doing.

"You'll take too long, Ino-pig!"

"Like you'd do better, Forehead!"

Sasuke peered over at the commotion from the next tree, rolling his eyes. "What's Yasha getting himself into now?" he muttered to himself.

The two girls glared at each other while Yasha wore a bored expression, the pre-genin deciding to let it play out for a bit rather than play the charm card again.

Sakura smirked. "With my intellect you're no match for me!"

Ino was just about to bite back a retort when a thought hit her, and she grinned. "Oh yeah? Then how do I already have a boyfriend?"

Sakura scoffed. "Ha! In your dreams!"

"No, he's right here." Ino pointed at Yasha, who blinked, then uncrossed his arms, making his top fall down and revealing his chest.

Two seconds later, the brunette sighed and pulled himself back up on the branch, giving a cursory glance to all the unconscious girls below him. "Well, Naruto-kun, this is why girls are something you save for later."

Naruto gaped at the pile, watching Iruka rush over. "…_How_ much later?" he asked tentatively.

Yasha sighed. "If you're mature enough to wait until you're twenty, then you're mature enough to have one."

The Uzumaki nodded slowly. "But you've got a girlfriend _now_." He inspected Yasha's grimace. "Righttt…?"

His friend flung his hands up uncaringly. "I guess so, but I'm not expecting it to last. It's a just a face Ino's putting on. After Academy, it should go back to normal."

"Oh." Naruto turned back, inspecting the pile again. "Should I tell her that you're not interested?"

"_Definitely_ not," Yasha corrected firmly.

"Right." The blond shrugged, his interest returning back downwards. "I didn't know girls were perverted too…"

* * *

"Ino, I need to talk with you!" Yasha called over after class.

She came over, much to the other girls' delight, who grouped at a distance while tittering. A frown was fixed on her face. "You're meant to call me Ino-_chan_. You're my boyfriend now."

Despite her attempts, she couldn't restrain the blush when she said that word.

"Ino, _seriously,_" Yasha said exasperatedly. "If this is what you want, _fine_. But hasn't your father grounded you?"

She blinked. "Who told you?" she demanded.

"You didn't come looking for me over the weekend. It was fairly obvious." Yasha waved his hand dismissively. "I don't see how we can have a relationship like that while you can't even get out of the house."

Ino shrugged. "We can wait. He'll have to let me out _eventually_."

Yasha nodded. "Fine then, but after graduation, we'll both be on different teams, most likely. And if that's the case, we won't see each other most."

"I know that, idiot."

"Cool. See you tomorrow."

"Yeah," Ino muttered as Yasha jumped out the window, Naruto soon following.

* * *

"Yasha-sama."

"What's up now, Naoki-chan?" Yasha turned to the three-year-old, who gave him a tentative smile, holding a book towards him.

"Will you read to me?"

"Sure." Yasha gave her a warm smile. He took the book and peered at the cover. "The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar."

He didn't remember buying that – either his memory was going or Keito bought it. "Did Keito buy this for you?"

"Hai," Naoki said quietly.

Yasha rolled his eyes at the book and began to read. "There once was a caterpillar that was very, _very_ hungry…"

"I like butterflies," Naoki commented after the book ended.

"Yeah, they're pretty." Yasha looked distant for a bit.

"Did you kill my parents?" Naoki asked quietly, looking resigned.

Yasha raised his eyebrows even as a spark of adrenaline fired despite the docile girl's state. "Why would I save _you_ if I killed your parents?"

"You were there and you fought Itachi. He spared you, which meant you two had a deal. He's not as crazy as they say," Naoki explained slowly, articulating each word carefully.

_'That's some scary intelligence for a three-year-old.'_ Yasha frowned. "No, he wasn't, but I'm not an Uchiha."

Naoki looked down, black eyes enveloping his view. "But if you're not, how did you know what was happening and be able to plan it?"

"I have a mind-reading technique. It's part of my bloodline," Yasha explained easily. "I knew what he was thinking about."

"I see," came the whispered answer.

Yasha placed his chin on her head. "I would have saved your parents, but Itachi would find it easy to track me and they'd most likely become obsessed with revenge or hated by the villagers. Things would never be the same."

Naoki frowned, looking as deep in thought as a deceptively-cute three-year-old could.

Yasha sighed. "I don't want you to be scared of me, Naoki-chan. I want as much as possible for you kids to live happy lives – as ninja or not. The only thing I can't accept for you lot is becoming obsessed with revenge, and unfortunately, the Uchiha have a genetic trait that makes them mentally unstable."

"What's genetic?" the girl asked.

Yasha felt a bit of relief as he had to explain. "Inherited from the parents. And the parents got it from their parents, and so on. Because it's a trait, you're more likely to get it, but there's still a good chance you won't."

"Thanks, Yasha-sama."

"No problem." Yasha smiled at her; she seemed to have accepted it. But the fact that a three-year-old put all these pieces together was frankly _astonishing_. Her maturity was _way_ beyond her age. She would be scary intelligent when she was older – if she actually trusted him, she would just be incredible.

Otherwise, she would be an incredible pain in the neck. She seemed smart enough to hide if she didn't believe him, but then, he didn't know how to deal with regular three-year-old logic, never mind ridiculously smart kids.

His mind drifted to other places. "I'm not sure about the budget for you guys, though. I'm running out on savings so I'll probably be putting you in orphanages. I want you to forget you're Uchiha, for your own sake, lest Itachi be made aware I actually managed to save some, but it's dangerous to keep so many people who look like Uchiha together."

Yasha sighed, running his hand through his hair and gazing up at the ceiling. "To be honest, this was a lot harder than I expected." He snorted at what he just said. "I mean, I _knew_ kids aren't easy, but I wasn't expecting 24/7 readiness for people observing me _and_ no sleep for a month straight! If anyone comes here, I have to worry about enemies of Konoha looking for Sharingan setting their sights on you guys. All they need to do is put you in a scenario where Sharingan activates… and the rest is obvious."

Naoki nodded slightly.

"I dunno why I'm telling you, but hopefully you'll forget everything when you're six or so." Yasha sighed, smiling down at her. "I do love kids, but they are like…" he raised his eyes to the heavens, spreading his hands, "the _biggest_ energy drain ever."

He trailed off in thought.

"Will you read me this one?"

"Oh? Sure."

* * *

Inoichi took his hand off the man's head with a prolonged sigh.

"Anything?" Ibiki asked, watching onwards with a clipboard and pen ready.

"Nothing. I'm trying all the things I know of, but nothing's getting through so far." The pony-tailed man sighed. "I can detect the genjutsu's initiation, but I can't enter to see what commands he set, so I can't confirm if it's just trust or something more, much less how to delete it."

"What do you know about the genjutsu so far?" Ibiki pressed.

"It works regardless of emotions; the user cannot detect it even if it contrasts heavily with what they were doing." Inoichi ran a hand down his face wearily. "The moment it's planted lasts only a half-second or so, and has a memory gap, which is blurred over during memory experience."

"Oh, a blur." Ibiki frowned in sympathy. Memory holes and indecipherable memories were more common, but more obvious to the carrier as well. A blur was a sign of someone using advanced memory concealment; a very rare find and all the more difficult to deal with.

Inoichi nodded shortly. "This is easily an S-Rank; it's probably going to need a whole new method of addressing it. If we had some of Yūrei's chakra, I could attempt a response trigger, but…"

"No such luck." Ibiki sighed, slapping the pen down smartly. "He's gone, or so we hope. Tracker teams had nothing to go on anyway, and we had no direction to start off with. He could even still be in the village; no one's seen his chakra bar ANBU getting short glimpses whenever he used a technique, and we can't depend on those to search for him… and most wouldn't be able to look through walls anyway."

Inoichi raised an eyebrow. "But what he said before he ran made it sound like he was leaving."

"That's _his_ word, and frankly, that's all we have to go on. No one knows where he lives, either, so we're gonna have to hire Hyuuga to look around for a seal-protected place… but he was a seal master, he could have made it so it seemed normal to Byakugan."

Inoichi shook his head. "I confirmed there were some Hyuuga ANBU that had the trust genjutsu on them. It would be stupid for him to miss the opportunity to test seals out, make one Byakugan-proof."

"But maybe such a thing isn't possible." Ibiki tapped the pen against his lips thoughtfully. "To be frank, Inoichi-san, with the elder council and the Hokage out of this…" Ibiki pointed his pen at him, "if you can't figure out a removal and detection for this genjutsu, he'll have full reign over all of Konoha. We can't really ask for any help from our superiors because they turn on us to cancel the mission anyway."

"Yeah, I know." Inoichi ran his free hand down his face again, staring at Lion's dosing head in front of him. He was going to have to go in again soon.

"Doesn't that just rub you the wrong way?"

"Hmm?" The Yamanaka paused, already knowing what his successor was feeling.

Ibiki frowned. "Every single one of the village leaders has just been overpowered, and for all we know, Yūrei didn't even cash in on it. He just hid from the world… to all appearances a perfect loyal soldier. He could easily have visited you, Shikaku and I, and that'd leave the entire command under his thumb. Then he could've raised his ANBU salary, or appointed himself on the elder council, or hell, even become _Hokage_… but he did nothing at all. He just hid. That's just… odd."

"Depends what you're hiding from," Inoichi mused thoughtfully.

There was silence as Ibiki twirled a few switches on the machinery, deep in thought, a flicker of emotion instantly covered on his face at the thought of what would scare someone that powerful that much. He stepped back into place beside Inoichi, as a thought hit him. "Say, Inoichi-san, I heard about what happened with Ino. Is she alright?"

Inoichi scowled. He'd managed to forget all about that unpleasant incident. "She barely remembers it, but it was her fault. Just traded one monstrous act for another."

Ibiki gave a short, barking laugh. "I'd say. Do you know they put up a picture at ANBU headquarters?"

_"What?!"_ Inoichi started. Then he caught onto what Ibiki meant. "Wait, of Yasha? Really?"

"Yeah." Ibiki grinned. "Blood-covered and bored-looking like a real psychopath, at only twelve years old. I got a copy too, through the grapevine." It was normally forbidden to have access to ANBU mission information, but since the nurses had seen it anyway, the point was moot. "Makes me want to bring him to T&amp;I."

"Again?" Inoichi smiled wanly.

"As _staff_ this time," Ibiki clarified, his grin unwavering. "You heard him when he was in here last time. I don't like to admit it, but he played mind games just as well as I do – Kami knows what he'll be like as an adult."

Inoichi shuddered as he remembered his subconscious _begging_ him to run from the tied-down Yasha, all its Yamanaka conditioning undone in a few seconds. "Don't remind me. The last time he was here was _not_ a pleasant experience."

Another few seconds ticked by as the two were lost in their memory of that scenario. Inoichi hurriedly brought himself back on track. "Do we have anything on the genjutsu Sasuke had on him?"

Ibiki hummed. "Sasuke? It was a Sharingan type, a rare type called Mangekyō, apparently only Itachi has it. The eye changes shape and it grants new, more powerful Sharingan abilities, with a heavy strain on the user."

Inoichi turned back to him. "What does that look like? And what abilities?"

The scarred interrogator waved his hand dismissively. "I don't know, maybe just a fourth tomoe, but apparently it looks very obvious. This is an S-Rank secret anyway, Inoichi, since Sasuke may awaken it and the Uchiha is a founding principle of Konoha, even if their numbers are reduced to one. I only know of Mangekyō because we think Itachi has it. The trauma Sasuke went through was due to a genjutsu that lasted three days for him, but only took a couple of seconds in real time."

"The trauma was probably all the worse because his brain was unable to process that much without sleep – that amount of information overloaded his brain, and as he slept, his brain was overworked trying to process and store the memories too. He probably dreamed the illusion as well." Inoichi frowned, playing the new information in his head. A piece was slotted into the puzzle of Yūrei's genjutsu. "How powerful are these illusions? I think Yūrei can use them too, and plentifully."

"Go on." Ibiki wrote, eyebrow raised.

"In Lion's memory, his Sharingan eye seemed to do something… or rather, it hid _what _it was doing, which makes me rather certain it _was_ doing something unusual. He managed to hit a lot of ANBU, judging from our tests, and being Lion here was hit with the illusion on his own, Yūrei wasn't feeling pressured to use it sparingly. He could have easily done the entire team before leaving on the mission, but he did it _during_."

"Makes sense." Ibiki nodded, scribbling.

"If it's as straining as you say, the fact he used it on seemingly a spur-of-the-moment makes it being Mangekyō questionable, but not impossible," Inoichi continued slowly. "Straight after that, he slams out three A-Ranks in seconds after each other, all different elements, and although it tires him out, he still has active Sharingan casting genjutsu on the way back. Nonetheless the fact there's only half-a-second memory gap means either he expanded time like that Mangekyō illusion Itachi had, or the command was very short. Since I can't see what it is, I can't tell."

Ibiki wrote and shrugged. "It's possible Yūrei was an Uchiha capable of using Mangekyō. Mangekyō requires special circumstances to awaken, very few have it." He snorted in morbid humour. "Well, even fewer now."

"Funny," Inoichi retorted dryly, in no mood for dark humour after what happened to Ino yesterday night. "I'll go back and see if I can confirm Mangekyō. If it's as powerful as you say, I'm going to need entirely new jutsu to fight it. Expanding time is a first – I've heard of people forcing excess adrenaline and high-speed chakra flow for extra time perception, but only twenty seconds out of two, and the only user died long ago. Three days sounds like a completely new method."

"Well, good luck." Ibiki smirked. "If you fail, we'll just have to keep shuffling ANBU staff until we seal the security breaches."

Inoichi sighed and dived back in, thankfully reconnecting with his chakra imprint so he didn't have to go through the defences again.

"Damnit, Yūrei," he cursed again for good measure.

Then a thought hit him. Lion was the one who gave the report on what Yasha had done, the closest to the scene of what happened with Ino and Yasha last night. Inoichi rolled his eyes inside Lion's mind, but he knew he'd never forgive himself for giving up the opportunity, so he drew a little chakra marker on the scroll and spooled it back up again, looking for the first occurrence of Ino.

_'The hospital scene, Ino and Yasha in their beds… well, Yasha __**sat**__ on his bed, Ino lying in hers.'_ Inoichi frowned, then realised why that was the first 'Ino' marker; Lion didn't know who Ino was until after he'd arrived at the hospital.

Well, at least he knew Lion wasn't creeping on his daughter. The Yamanaka clan head worked his way back, searching for the most recent time adrenaline fired, and slowing the pace of the memory to half normal speed.

_'There she is…'_ He blinked. '_Oh Kami-sama, that man __**is**__ going down her legs. Yasha hadn't lied.'_ Inoichi clenched his fists as Lion slowly dropped off the roof, the ANBU watching closely, ready to jump in as soon as his feet hit the ground.

The Yamanaka hadn't _really_ expected Yasha to lie; Yasha lying to a parent about whether their child was abused would be something he wouldn't use lightly, being it may well be a source of trauma for him. And Ino confirming a lie like _that_ (which she had last night), would be definitely _not_ something she would do. She was honest and blunt – although she knew Yamanaka techniques to hide lying, Inoichi knew _her_ enough to counter it.

But Inoichi had hoped. Some part of him wished his little girl never went through that.

The Yamanaka's gaze flickered to Yasha, whose face looked absolutely… _blank_, last traces of some emotion fading from it. Even the moonlight reflecting from his eyes faded to darkness.

Inoichi slowed the pace of the memory to its limit, stepping in front of Yasha and inspecting carefully. Yasha's mouth suddenly elongated slightly, making Inoichi start, and the boy's eyes began to close quickly, in a blink, his body tensing backwards, readying himself for a dive forwards.

**_Bam._**

Inoichi suddenly felt his entire body waver from Lion's emotional reaction as Yasha suddenly _exploded_ with dark fog, swarms instantly surrounding him so thickly his form could barely be made out, at least three inches in every direction. The ground cracked underneath him, the air pulsing with chakra and Inoichi could make out the swarms as they flooded outwards into the cracks in the ground.

Inoichi stepped back, unable to see Yasha's face, since Lion couldn't see it either.

Yasha opened his mouth with a roar that literally made the ground shake, and Inoichi saw how his canines had gotten at least a centimetre larger – a fact only _barely_ visible in the memory. Demonic, that was for damn sure.

**_Bam._**

Another flood of shock as Yasha's foot hit into the concrete with such force the already cracked concrete shattered into shards, accelerating forward so quickly that Inoichi couldn't even follow the movement, as Lion couldn't. '_Beyond a speed an ANBU was ready for…'_

The rapist didn't even have time to move before he was flung to the side. Inoichi watched in shock as Yasha began to scream something, sprays of blood hitting the alley with each movement of his hand.

That boy was _dangerous_. Whatever hellish kind of bloodline he had, that was not natural behaviour, even for someone who had endured child abuse.

When Boar turned up, and Lion gestured to Ino, her father gave a faint smile at his prioritising. Lion finally called out to Yasha, and as he turned to look back at them, Inoichi's own eyes widened in shock. He had seen eyes like that before.

Red bleeding into traces of yellow, with a black slit. The Kyuubi's eyes looked just like that. Inoichi had had to help enough survivors of the Kyuubi invasion to know those eyes _very_ well. Hell, Yasha might have an infusion of the Kyuubi's chakra from being around Naruto so long… Inoichi made a note to talk to the Hokage of the possibility the seal was weakened. Taking the Kyuubi's chakra would weaken Naruto, given if all was taken, he would die outright. No Jinchūriki survived an extraction.

Although, Yasha had shown no interest in attempting to even _look_ at Naruto's seal, and was very protective of him; and he hadn't even shown knowledge of the Kyuubi, period. If he had, to be frank, he would be _gone_. An outsider meeting someone who they _know_ is a Jinchūriki is a glaringly obvious threat.

Yasha not knowing that fact obviously factored heavily into his having remained in Konoha.

Was tearing the abuser to pieces a normal reaction a child would have if they had suffered child abuse and had weapons capable of inflicting injury like that at their disposal?

…No. Adults might have hardened away from fear and only had anger, but children… normal children would retreat into themselves, cower and cry, run away, yell for help, yell for them to stop, restrain the abuser, freeze up… all of these were _normal_ reactions. Brutal murder was not normal, much less turning into some sort of demon-eyed swarm-covered animal.

His psychological status may be _stable_, but it did have some very serious triggers. Inoichi made another note about that; Yasha would need some counselling talks from his would-be sensei before he went on active duty.

Inoichi was distantly aware he was wide-eyed. It was a good thing he was still in Lion's mind or Ibiki would see him with his psych bared, which is not something Inoichi wanted. Ibiki was loyal and dutiful, but you just don't feel comfortable giving ammo to someone like him.

* * *

"Anything?" Ibiki asked, trying to keep his tone patient.

It had been five days since his first attempt. Inoichi had been poring over old scrolls, investigating every genjutsu and Sharingan jutsu scroll he could get his hands on… but there was just no way to access it.

Inoichi rolled his eyes, sitting himself down on the same chair in front of Lion. "Like yesterday, I have some theories, but I'm not expecting them to work, still."

"A security breach this big lasting this long… it's becoming critical. We might have to do some cropping of ANBU at this rate."

"It's black ops, Ibiki, you and I both know that means they will have to have their chakra and memories sealed," Inoichi said with a sigh, "And that still doesn't solve the problem of the elder council and the Hokage. Even though the elder council can be laced with genjutsu prevention seals, it's not a perfect solution and will have detrimental effects on their health. And then there's the Hokage."

Ibiki scowled. "Well, right now, out of every nine people in ANBU, Yūrei has a genjutsu on at least one of them. And that's _rough_ calculations. That means during an attack, they could turn on the villagers, on the Hokage, whoever, and all Yūrei has to do is team up with an enemy nation and Konoha is _finished_."

Inoichi plonked his chin into his hands. "I've studied his mission records…" he snorted and corrected himself. "At least, as many as I could get my hands on. Every word he said, and what team members think of him, his nervous habits, his speech traits, world views, likes and dislikes."

"And? Tell me." Ibiki looked interested.

"He's got excellent emotional restraint, so can become cold in an instant, but has a dry sense of humour. It's very likely he's an advanced chakra sensor. When he's nervous, he tends to become independent and keep everyone nearby him – not necessarily within sight, though." Inoichi paused for thought. "He admires nature and has a habit of staring at a single leaf or insect while waiting for things. He's never had a moral problem with killing anyone, and never hesitates in doing so; however, he tends to do it in one hit.

"He's been proven to have abilities to lock a person's movements by touching them once, regardless of their speed or size, which may be a seal application. He has made genjutsu seals before, but nothing Jiraiya couldn't remake given time – blindness, muting, etc. He likes efficiency above all else, and talks about other countries without passion."

"And your conclusion?" Ibiki said, writing busily.

Inoichi hummed. "He's too capable to be a puppet, and he shows nothing by way of contrary opinions – he does talk about missions, but rarely with any sense of whether it's a smart move or morally justified. He has accepted all missions assigned to him, including ones that have faulty information. His goal is unclear, so it can be assumed he simply was just hiding and waiting for something."

"For what?"

Inoichi narrowed his eyes. "**_That…_** is the big question. He doesn't enquire for information on people or countries via the ANBU headquarters, and he's never changed attitude noticeably when he hears of news from other members or while reading briefings. In short, he's not seeming to watch or track anything, so if he is waiting for something, it must be obvious and nearby – say, a village invasion."

"No reaction to Yasha, then?"

Yasha was the biggest unknown that had occurred in their village prior to the massacre, and his presence was obvious even to civilians thanks to his KI pulses. Inoichi had investigated that on a hunch. "Good idea, but no, not even him."

"Anything else of note?"

"He occasionally splurges on expensive chocolate from Land of Rice, but we've traced that for information leaks, in the packaging or traders, and nothing there. He prefers Western food and eats about three times what average ANBU do. And I pulled the files on his finances – he's made enough to retire in luxury four times over, from his mission ranks and totals, and he's taken his cash out at the end of every mission like clockwork, but as _cash_."

Ibiki tutted, prompting a nod from Inoichi, who continued, "If he's stored it in bank accounts, he's covered his tracks well; we're trying to find accounts with deposit dates that match, but so far no results, and of course he can make his own blood storage scrolls and store them on his person or use them to send via a trusted proxy to another country's bank."

"Unlikely, if he prefers independence," Ibiki interjected.

Inoichi nodded. "That's true. He may have sleeper agents, but the point of them is pretty much nullified if we discover their presence or he cannot activate them. I'm not familiar enough with Sharingan genjutsu, much less Mangekyō Sharingan, but currently I can't detect his influence whatsoever on any part of the brain, bar the origin memory being blurred. It's more isolated and more powerful than anything I've dealt with before."

Ibiki nodded, flicking through his notes. "However, we've checked ten current and past ANBU and there's only _one_ implant memory all those times. All of them trust Yūrei completely, and will follow any decision of his without question, even if it was against their morals or a loyal village member."

The Yamanaka head nodded. "Each memory varies in time, within less than a second to three seconds, and there's a cover-up of the Sharingan in all the times it's visible, but it might not be looking be in the victim's line of sight. In addition, he can hit multiple targets at once, presumably with the same command."

Ibiki frowned. "If he can implant a genjutsu by just looking at his target, and presumably being nearby (since all genjutsu are easier to target when nearby), then he could have done hundreds of villagers in the ten years he's been active."

"It's unlikely," Inoichi reasoned. "He's efficient. Backdoors and underhanded tricks aren't his style, they're hard to confirm. Plus, if they don't know who he is, they can hardly be told to trust him. Barely any jounin and chuunin know who he is at all, I've had someone check."

"Right."

The two men sat in thought for a while, the clock ticking beside them the only sound in the room.

"Time to get to work, I guess."

"What's your attempt this time?"

"I've got to try again at analysing the triggers for his genjutsu. There has to be something to do with knowing him, or being commanded by him, but I can't find them. I'm going to try questioning all the decisions Yūrei's made in Lion's memories against his subconscious, to see if he trusts even ones before the genjutsu."

"Alright."

* * *

"If Yūrei said to trust him completely, would you?"

"Yes."

"If Yūrei said to not trust him completely, would you?"

"Yes."

"How much do you trust Yūrei?"

"Completely."

Inoichi racked his brains, when a random thought hit him. "If Yūrei was about to die in front of you, or you could save the Hokage, who would you save?"

"The Hokage."

Inoichi blinked. Interesting. The trust was just trust, it didn't affect rank or strategy, bar picking who should give a strategy. It might be possible to override Yūrei's trust by getting the Hokage to countermand it, but that would require an emotionless subject… since trust was an emotion, sort of. More of a habit built from experience with a person.

Yūrei's decisions before the genjutsu implant were considered good, and after likewise. Since Yūrei was such an exceptional leader, Inoichi had been unable to find a bad decision in Lion's memories he could argue against.

What to do… what to do…

* * *

"Anything?"

"No, fucking damn it!" Inoichi swore, whacking his fists on the machine in front of him.

Ibiki blinked in surprise. "You're losing your temper? That's unusual."

"Ino's not helping. She's gotten Yasha as her boyfriend."

Ibiki snorted in disbelief. "You're joking." He inspected Inoichi's stony glare. "Ridiculous."

"I thought she would know better, and I've warned her so many times I can't really do any more without talking about Yasha being a security risk and why I know. But still…" Inoichi looked thoughtful, "There is something that's been bothering my subconscious for a while. I hadn't the time to look at it, but it's affecting my emotions, so I think I'd best take a break and deal with it."

"As you wish, Inoichi-san." Ibiki sighed.

* * *

Inoichi scratched his head, wandering about Konoha in thought. His subconscious had been going off… not since Yasha's interrogation, but earlier… since Yūrei left, in fact. Did Yūrei do serious damage when he knocked him out?

Or had he applied a seal?

Suddenly worried, he made his way back to the Yamanaka compound. His chakra sensing wasn't detecting any foreign chakra on his skin, so that would normally exclude the possibility of seals, but if anything, Yūrei was not to be underestimated. Inoichi's best bet was to meditate in his clan gardens, where he was at his calmest and could reach the bottommost levels of his subconscious.

Once there, it took him a good five minutes of meditation to bypass his various security measures – some were even proof against him, on the off-chance someone copied his chakra imprint or used genjutsu-fuuinjutsu seals powered by his own (presumably stolen) chakra.

And then he was in his subconscious, which was normally a plain light grey expanse, with incalculable numbers of little dark grey vines stretching from the floor to the ceiling, each indicating a different sense and memory. If there was a foreign chakra, it would have a different colour.

Walking through it, extending his senses carefully, he made his way to Yūrei's leaving moments, and came across a black strand.

"Got you," he smirked.

Grabbing the strand, he pulled the top from the ceiling and the bottom from the floor, holding it in his hands. He closed his eyes and read it.

It was his chakra sense, during the few milliseconds as his mind was falling into unconsciousness.

His right ankle, halfway up the thigh on the back. A chakra-less seal, about a centimetre in diameter. There were no other strands and no colour changes nearby that, so it wasn't a genjutsu seal. His subconscious would have gone completely nuts if it had been genjutsu.

He willed it to disappear, and it did, but then all the strands shivered and he swore, quickly starting to exit his mind.

Shivering meant an external chakra drain. Something was sucking his chakra, and he'd bet his life it was that seal he just tried to dislodge.

* * *

Yūrei dodged the incoming fist with a frown. So, that seal was activating. Inoichi had caught on at a rather odd time.

"Kisame!" he called to the man twenty paces behind him, who was sat cross-legged with a bored look.

"What is it now, Yūrei?" the man sighed, as Yūrei decked another of the man's bodyguards.

"I'm going to be taking a break. Back in a while."

"Hai, hai." Kisame sighed, standing up and slapping Samehada to the ready. "Don't waste too much time or Leader will be pissed."

Yūrei nodded back at him, releasing a seal, and with a puff of smoke he vanished.

* * *

Inoichi opened his eyes, standing up hastily, rolling up his trouser leg and bending awkwardly to see the seal glowing. "A Person summon?!"

He flared his chakra rapidly as Yūrei appeared beside him, the ANBU's hands locked in a Tiger seal.

"Yamanaka-sama," Yūrei greeted calmly.

"Yūrei," Inoichi responded in turn, stepping backwards rapidly from the master assassin, expanding his chakra senses. Several jounin-levels inbound, ANBU included.

Shit, if ANBU that trusted Yūrei were inbound…

* * *

**AN:** ESCALATION OUTTA NOWHERE!

A genjutsu and assassination master facing a mental jutsu master, with jounin who might be under Yūrei's control jumping into the fray.

Fun fun fun!


	30. Discovery

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 30: Discovery_**

* * *

**AN: **My machine for tapping into this universe failed. Had to fix it with some rubber bands and a paperclip. It tends to fail if there's not enough reviews or I start writing my own manga.

This chapter starts with Yūrei just being Summon'd to Konoha thanks to a sneaky seal implant during his exit of the village. Meanwhile, Itachi is laying low recovering from an illness, Jiraiya is trying to track like 5 different people, and Tsunade is probably gambling…

* * *

"I'm surprised it took you so long. I was expecting it far sooner… or far later." Yūrei drifted off in thought. "Anyway, how are things here?"

Inoichi's mind was reeling from the sudden jump from complete calm with mental defences lowered to adrenaline rush and defences hastily reactivating. "Still peaceful, despite your attempts."

"Oh, no. I want peace," Yūrei assured him. "In fact, this Summon is a measure to cause it."

Inoichi gestured at him, feeling too cornered to risk making a handseal of his own. "And what's that jutsu you're doing?"

"What you have on you is a single-use Summon, and it fades once I trigger it here." Yūrei ignored his question, his replying tone matter-of-fact. "You can check after I'm gone."

"All Summons are limited in time," Inoichi pointed out. Otherwise, shinobi who could Summon would keep their Summon creatures around all the time.

Yūrei nodded. "That's true. Naturally, it's sucking up your chakra as well, but I calculate we have about ten minutes or so before your health becomes at risk."

Inoichi was slowly feeling his mental defences rebuilding, and with them, his senses. "Couldn't I cancel the flow to the seal?"

"I wouldn't recommend it." Yūrei smiled behind the mask.

_'Don't give a fuuinjutsu master time,'_ Inoichi cursed to himself. _'If I knew anything about what Yūrei was after…'_

"Why did you leave a seal? You said for peace?"

"That's quite right. Right now, there are… roughly twenty Jounin and ANBU inbound. I'm here to surrender."

"You're here for _what?"_

* * *

" 'All I'm saying, come around my house today. Even if Dad hates you, he won't kick you out. I can sweet-talk him into it.' " Yasha imitated Ino's voice rather badly, causing her to glare at him. "I told you it wouldn't work."

"Yeah right. _Daaaad!"_ Ino called, stepping inside her front door.

"Um… not right now!"

Ino flinched. Dad _never_ yelled back. He rarely even shouted when he was angry – it was too emotional, too uncontrolled, and a bad habit. And he was shouting _deliberately_ calmly, and obviously forcing it. Not just forcing it, but forcing it _poorly_.

"Um, wait here, okay?" Ino pointed at the ground for emphasis and started striding towards where her dad should be.

"Right." Yasha nodded, looking down the street with a bored expression.

"And don't run off, or… the usual threats!" she called back, hurrying forward.

"Mmhmm."

Ino stepped towards the rock garden, pulling a kunai out carefully, and suddenly aware she hadn't been practicing enough. She didn't feel confident right now.

Her sensing skill was mediocre at best, but she felt it in her dad's tone. She felt like someone was there.

Someone powerful.

She didn't feel safe now. She gripped the kunai tightly, and stepped toward the voice. Rock garden?

"Dad?" she called again, yelling to the side in an attempt to throw her voice.

"Not now!"

Definitely the rock garden.

She was three steps from the door.

* * *

Yūrei had stopped talking since Ino yelled, and the general aura he was giving off… amusement. Inoichi, meanwhile, could barely keep a handle on his fear.

"Is that Ino?" Yūrei asked, and yes, that was definitely a purr of amusement in his voice.

Inoichi could hear her footsteps getting closer to the master assassin. Every step. Suddenly he could bear it no longer. "RUN!"

"Dad?!" Ino dived into the garden, blinking at the sight of a black-masked man wearing a cloaked outfit with red clouds and white lining. "What's wrong?!"

Was she going to disobey him on _everything?_ Inoichi turned slightly. "I'm fine, but this man is dangerous. Get away, **_now!"_**

Ino stepped back rapidly, starting to run, when a hand touched her and suddenly she couldn't move.

"Now what would she be running from?" Yūrei asked calmly from his place beside her.

Inoichi blinked. Two. Fuck, shadow clones. Yūrei had placed him under an illusion earlier before he had fully woken up.

"KAI!" he snapped his hands into the seal, without even thinking about the consequences.

Yūrei flinched. "Ouch. Watch out, you could set off the Summoning seal's defences."

"Don't you DARE hurt my daughter!" Inoichi snapped.

"She's fine," the clone reassured him. "It's just a paralysis seal."

The original Yūrei shrugged. "Like I said, I'm here for peace. And a good thing too, or you'll be very worried right now."

"I _am_ worried," Inoichi said through gritted teeth, revving up the biggest amount of Suiton-nature chakra he could. If he flooded the whole garden, that would buy time for the incoming ANBU. _'If only Ino had come home just a minute later…'_

Yūrei's clone poofed out of existence suddenly.

"Don't be worried. Your favourite kid is right here." Yasha smirked from behind Ino, clapping his hand on her shoulder.

Ino jumped in shock, suddenly realising she could move. Yasha's other hand wielded one of the only two sharp kunai he owned.

The brunette gave Yūrei an analysing look. "Are you running, Ino? I'll look after your father."

"I… er…" she looked around, taking in the single masked figure and her sudden lack of paralysis.

Yūrei scratched his head, keeping the other hand in a half-Ram seal. "There will be ANBU here in a few seconds. So you can relax."

"Why are you here, Yūrei?!" Inoichi snapped, trying to regain control of the conversation.

"Like I was saying before your daughter crashed in, surrender; specifically, of control of the trust genjutsu. It's 'the Uchiha massacre is coming'. If you say that to anyone who has my trust genjutsu, it will remove itself. It might knock them out, though."

"Why should I trust you about that?" Inoichi asked.

Yūrei sighed. "Do you _really_ think two half-baked genin could sneak up on one of _my_ clones?"

"Hey. I'm _fully_-baked," Yasha protested. "Don't underestimate my baked…ness."

"Oi. Conversation happening here," Yūrei shot back at him, gesturing a line between him and Inoichi.

Yasha shrugged, spinning the kunai around his finger. "Looks more like a half-baked intimidation."

"That's _his_ interpretation. He's just easily scared."

Ino blinked at the two and how easily they talked. "Do you two know each other or something?"

"Well, we both know a certain boy named Zack." Yūrei smiled.

Yasha nearly dropped the kunai out of shock, as Yūrei finally vanished out of existence, with a deceptively small puff of smoke.

At that moment, the ANBU team arrived, instantly taking positions facing where Yūrei had been a second earlier. Inoichi immediately ran over and embraced Ino, shaking in relief. "Thank Kami you're alright!"

Ino blinked, adrenaline still thumping in her ears. "What just happened?"

Yasha gaped, barely acknowledging the new ANBU, his mind spinning from what Yūrei had said. "What the hell?!"

"We turned up late, I suppose," ANBU Goat replied with a prolonged sigh.

"That was definitely Yūrei I sensed," ANBU Lion growled.

"Or, didn't sense," Kakashi corrected.

"It would be _you_ who turns up late," Goat jabbed.

Kakashi flipped out his book and smirked. "I got here before you four did."

Inoichi calmed himself with some difficulty, observing the multiple ANBU in readiness around him. "For Kami's sake, ANBU need better response times!"

"We're positioned on the outskirts of the village… not the center," one ANBU muttered.

"Might have to talk to Shikaku-san about that," Inoichi growled, making the ANBU flinch at the mention of an angry Jounin Commander.

Yasha stopped gaping, blinking rapidly before shelving the information. He looked around, regaining his bearings. "Eh, no worries Inoichi-san. I scared him off."

Inoichi could only stare at him in disbelief. "Don't get a big head, Yasha-kun."

"Geez, I was joking." Yasha waved his hands in a defusing gesture. "But attacking random people to save your daughter is becoming a habit with me."

_'The first time, your stupidity was part of the cause,'_ Inoichi thought. "Why are you here, in my home, Yasha-kun?" he asked in exasperation.

"Ino invited me over," Yasha deflected. "She was going to ask if it was okay…"

"Yes, I told you to _wait at the door_," Ino interjected, her natural bossy nature finally re-emerging.

Yasha rolled his eyes and gazed at her flatly. "Well, good thing I ignored the quaver in your voice, the stiffening of your shoulders, the tightening of your stance, the eye widening, the freezing in place, the change in tone, and the slow, hesitant way you walked into _your own home_, and did just that."

Kakashi restrained his desire to whistle. Genin were turning out to be quite something these days. He suddenly felt a bit more hopeful about his upcoming new team.

Ino's eyes grew wide. "You noticed all of that?"

Yasha frowned. "Don't lie to me, Ino, and don't _dare_ try to trick me. I see more than you know." He exchanged a glance at the glowering and protective Inoichi and shrugged. "I guess this isn't the best time to get chummy with your father, so I'll leave now."

"Wait!"

"See you tomorrow!" Yasha called, picking up the pace. He groaned as an ANBU grabbed him by the shoulder just outside the front door. _'So close, yet so far…'_

"Inoichi-san, can you explain what's happened here?"

"Yūrei came back and gave me some information." Inoichi checked his leg, but the seal was fading away. He straightened, frowning. "I need to speak to the Hokage."

"We'll accompany you there," the boar-masked ANBU said calmly. "Yūrei is a genjutsu master."

"That's fine…" Inoichi began, then blinked in realisation. _'Which ANBU could have genjutsu on them? Yūrei hid what his Ram was doing. I can't trust anyone in ANBU, especially not after Yūrei's unknown jutsu… Wait, I know __**he**__ was free.'_ He glanced at Kakashi. "I'll let him accompany me."

ANBU Boar blinked in surprise, giving Kakashi an assessing look. "Okay…?"

"Actually, I've got someplace to be…" Kakashi deflected, pointing behind him vaguely and stepping back hurriedly. Hell if he went to the Hokage's office and got caught in some long-ass discussion about his former teammate… and then filling in an _Incident Report_… damn the paperwork…

"Kakashi!" Boar and Inoichi growled together.

Kakashi sighed and conceded. "Fine. But you're doing the paperwork."

Inoichi paled at the thought of _yet more_ paperwork, but shook his head in resolution. For the village, he would stomach it.

He fixed a pointed look at his daughter. "You stay here, Ino-chan. The intruder is outside the village now, so don't worry about me. I'll explain later."

"Right…?" Ino agreed slowly, but he was already gone. In seconds the crowded garden was empty.

She sat down with a thump, head spinning. Her dad had been in danger, then she had been as well, then Yasha saved her, then the intruder had vanished for no reason. In like, the space of a _minute_. She needed time to process this.

One thing she definitely remembered was the **_fear_**. She had been in _way_ over her head. She had pulled out a kunai and realised how useless it really was to her. She could throw it accurately enough, but not at a high enough speed.

Her offensive ninjutsu was… well, none. Mind-Body Transfer wouldn't work on any enemy of that level, and even if it did, it wouldn't help her any. If she managed to get him away from both of them, it was _their house_. It wasn't exactly hard to find, any ANBU could find a flower shop from scent or knowing the area alone. Plus, her dad would have tried that if it could have worked.

And his speed was far too high. If that intruder had thrown a kunai at her, she'd be dead before she even registered his arm movement. Even her father, the most _deliberately_ calm man in Konoha, had lost it in front of this… Yūrei.

She wasn't sure if she felt safe at home any more. If her dad couldn't protect her in his own home, in the middle of his own clan… where could he?

* * *

"Seriously, man. I've _been_ to T&amp;I. Got the t-shirt and everything," Yasha protested hotly as he was flung about in body flickers. "If I go again it's just gonna get boring, you know?"

"I'm not taking you to T&amp;I. Although if you keep yammering, I might change my mind," Goat ANBU growled at him, doing the final shunshin to arrive in the Hokage's office.

The Third Hokage looked up, saw Yasha and Kakashi, and felt like slamming his head onto the desk. "What have you three done now?"

"Three…?" Yasha turned, looking at Kakashi who gave him an eye-smile, and Inoichi glared back.

"In short, Yūrei turned up and gave me a keyword that's supposedly for breaking the trust genjutsu. He also mentioned Zack."

"Ohhhh." Yasha's tired brain finally worked out why he had been escorted there and Ino hadn't.

"Zack," the Hokage muttered, cursing under his breath as he activated his privacy seals and the genjutsu-distorting seal on his arm. "And how was Yasha involved?"

Inoichi frowned, not wanting to take Yasha's side on anything, but he couldn't lie about it. "Circumstance, as far as I can tell."

"Ino invited me over," Yasha explained helpfully.

The Third idly wrote his signature on the paper he was halfway through. "Do you know that 'other guy'?"

Yasha shook his head firmly. "No, never seen him before. I didn't even know if Zack sent anyone else."

Kakashi rolled his eyes as an unfamiliar name was tossed around the room. Was he meant to know who Zack was? Did anyone know? Could he just step backwards, hide in the shadows and maybe slip out once the privacy seals were down and skip out on the paperwork? '_Step… step…'_

"And you, Kakashi?"

_'Damnit.'_ Kakashi sighed disappointedly. "I felt Inoichi's chakra pulse. He wanted me to escort him here instead of Boar."

"Fair enough." The Third gazed back at the Yamanaka clan head. "Inoichi, for obvious reasons, I want you taking Lion through your procedure again, test the keyword out. I'll send some other ANBU… or Kakashi, whoever you need time with."

Kakashi rolled his eyes again. If only Yūrei had put that genjutsu on him, he wouldn't have to babysit other ANBU.

Inoichi nodded. "I was actually just on break. Yūrei had placed a Summoning seal on me that day he left, and my subconscious had been bothering me about it. It was in a place I wouldn't see normally."

"Oh?" The Hokage lit his pipe, ignoring Yasha's glare. "Is there a way he could have placed another?"

"It would suit his personality, I suppose…" Inoichi realised. Yūrei liked to work in the shadows. To plant a new Summoning seal while placing emphasis on the time limit of an expiring one was just up his alley. "I'll check at T&amp;I. Kakashi, with me please."

"Damnit," Kakashi muttered under his breath. Yes, he was interested in Yūrei, but he didn't want to stand around while Inoichi laboured through mind techniques.

Plus, Ibiki didn't really get on with Kakashi, not after the biscuit incident.

The Third Hokage raised his hand. "Hold up, Inoichi. You say Zack was known of by Yūrei. Can you explain that?"

"He said to Yasha specifically, 'we both know a certain boy named Zack'. He could have gotten knowledge about Zack by his trust genjutsu, but I have yet to see him investigate any person of his own accord in the various memories, Zack and Yasha included. It's likely he's telling the truth."

"Great," Yasha bemoaned, heavily layering the sarcasm. "Now I'm stuck in Torture and Interrogation until they finally work out I actually _don't_ know anything about that guy."

The Third threw some of his strongest KI at Yasha, making him jolt. "Yasha, stop _whining_. If you don't know him and Zack did send him, he must have known of you. Yet he's been in the village for years, way before you. In fact, close to Zack's birth date if he's around your age. That implies Zack kept him up to date or what you saw of Zack was an illusion."

Yasha's eyes widened. Zack, an illusion? Well, it was certainly possible. But he controlled time; a side-effect of prolonged youth wouldn't be too shocking, much less hopping back in time with an aged body. Or he could have placed genjutsu over himself.

Or it might not have been Zack at all, just someone creating his image. Well, no, Yasha was proof against genjutsu.

Was it possible Zack hopped back in time so far he wasn't even born when he arrived? Wasn't only _one_ version of a person allowed in a timeline? Or was that Dimension Release's power, to clone the carrier by going back in time, so the past and the arriving future both coexisted, but any other person without the Release couldn't do it?

There was too many questions and theories to consider. Yasha forced his attention back to the scenario at hand. He had to defuse this suspicion or his ability to manage the kids would be hamstrung. Regardless of Yūrei.

Inoichi gave him an analysing look. "Hokage-sama, I'd prefer to deal with Yasha last. His bloodline doesn't allow mental transfers easily. I'd prefer to confirm if what Yūrei said was a real way to undo the illusion, because that'll describe more about Yūrei's motives, and in turn about Zack's, which will let us trust Yasha… or not."

"Do you think I'm lying, Inoichi-san?!" Yasha pleaded with him. If he was separated from the kids too long, they'd suffer and might even be discovered. And if Inoichi discovered those kids as a side-effect of mind hopping… well.

Inoichi analysed his expression and recalled his reaction to Yūrei's statement. "I have no reason to think you are. If you put on an act, it was perfect. But, I still wouldn't put it past you."

"Thanks?" The brunette responded confusedly. _'I guess he's complimenting my acting skills. But damnit, Inoichi was the only person who saw my reaction, and if he won't help me, I probably won't get out of this without a T&amp;I visit. And even if I stay in Konoha, the kids will be separated from me and I might get yet __**another**__ ANBU tail._

_'Either way, bad news for the kiddies. Michiko will probably just turn up one day and start harassing me for strawberries.' _He fought back a snort.

"So, Kakashi, if you could drag him over to T&amp;I and put him in a cell there…"

"Hai, hai." Kakashi grabbed a squirming Yasha and put his hand on Inoichi. "Ja ne."

The Third Hokage deactivated the privacy seals, watching the trio vanish.

The genjutsu-distorting seal on his hand deactivated as well, and a few seconds later, Yūrei's leaving genjutsu reactivated and he forgot all about his suspicion for Yasha.

* * *

Soon after, a lion-masked man was tied securely to a chair, and three shinobi were pinning him with their best analytical stares.

Inoichi sat down in front of him with a sigh and began. "Lion, you may be a sleeper agent, or even a time bomb."

"Not the worst thing that's happened to my reputation," Lion grouched back.

The clan head hesitated, then dismissed that line of conversation. "At any rate, we've put these chakra suppression seals on you for those cases. The room is sealed to prevent explosions. Do you have any weapons or chakra-less techniques I should know about if you go rogue?"

Lion rolled his eyes, testing the bonds against the chair he was strapped to. Good, it was safe. "I have a summon, but it's not venomous, so with barely any chakra I won't be able to produce anything particularly dangerous."

"Right. Listen closely. The Uchiha massacre is coming."

Lion blinked, then his head slumped.

Kakashi exposed his Sharingan deftly. "Looks like a very slight change in his brain chakra, but no other seals are activating I can see."

"Okay. Wish me luck." Inoichi ran through several seals and placed his hand on Lion's head, hopping in.

Inside was chaos. The memory scroll was unravelling by itself, the writing distorting even as it spooled into the mental ground.

"That's… not good?" Inoichi blinked at the spools laying in heaps on the floor, while the scroll kept spinning, faster than Inoichi had ever seen before. He watched in stunned fascination as the scroll began to reach the end, slowing down as the writing grew more sparse. Now it was nearly at the end, in other words, at the point Lion had been an infant.

All of a sudden, some parts of the spools began to catch fire, and the text shone, as a seal nearly filling the mindscape opened up in front of Inoichi, sub-seals spinning into action. The blond gaped. "Holy shit!"

He'd never seen seals that complex before. How many years must Yūrei had been studying to pull this level of mental fuuinjutsu off?

The spools on the floor all shone blindingly, then the scroll began to rewind, as the giant seal began to vanish, piece by piece the sub-seals completing and dissolving into nothing. Finally the main seal completed and faded away.

Tentatively, Inoichi approached the memories, and began to read the latest one. Well, Lion hadn't woken up and started attacking the guys in T&amp;I, so that was something. He obviously hadn't blown himself up, or Inoichi wouldn't be here anyway.

But, was Yūrei as straightforward as he made himself out to be?

* * *

"See, this is why I don't enjoy these sorts of things," Kakashi grumbled, beginning to mentally tire. He had had his Sharingan focused carefully on Inoichi and Lion, even watching what he could make of the chakra paths in their brains, but nothing had come of it.

For an hour, nothing.

_'Come to think of it, if the Fourth Shinobi War ever started, I'll tire too quickly,'_ Kakashi mused._ 'Just an hour in danger on the battlefield is very unlikely. In the Third Shinobi War, the war pretty much ended when Obito… well, at any rate, I need to train some more. If that Third War had carried on, I would have ended up dead on nearly all of the battlefields from Sharingan overuse. And that's forgetting using chakra for anything else.'_

Ibiki frowned, having mastered the art of standing completely still a while ago. "If Yūrei said the truth, this will break all control he has over Konoha, making our pursuit of him have lot more manpower but a lot less vehemence. If not… it may be a keyword to set in place a more aggressive command over their minds."

Kakashi shrugged. "Well, I've not seen anything happen… not that I can see far past the scalp even with Sharingan."

"Us two did theorise Yūrei spent his time in ANBU hiding from someone," Ibiki mused. "If he has given up control, it's because he's moved to another hiding place. He can't hide here if it's in disarray from his control; sooner or later word will leak out and the village will be attacked, chances are killing or at very least exposing him."

"Yūrei? Hiding?" Kakashi rolled the thought in his head for a while. "He doesn't seem like the type to hide. I think he was here for a reason."

"For whose authority?"

"He went ahead with the Uchiha massacre, but delayed the last one… I heard the name Zack being tossed around," Kakashi reasoned out loud. "Any enemy country would want the massacre to happen sooner – but no country has been building up its attack forces any more than usual in the last four years for a sneak attack, and none are testing the borders. He never wanted intel about other countries, and he didn't seem to like one more than the other."

"We'll have to investigate Zack, whoever he is," Ibiki said calmly. "He's got significant funds, and he's either disguising his appearance to be a child, or he has some eternal youth jutsu."

Kakashi gave a slight smile. "Orochimaru would _love_ to know that."

Ibiki rolled his eyes. "Well, he's not under Orochimaru if he's benefiting the village. At any rate, he did have a ridiculously good spy network inside Konoha, but if Yūrei was working with him, that explains it."

The Copy-Cat Kakashi frowned. "How good are we talking?"

"I heard he knew about matters limited to the elder council and maybe two others outside of it. But Yūrei was involved with the darkest secrets of the village, after all. With genjutsu over someone, he'd just have to ask them to tell him whatever secret he wanted to know; they'd trust him with it."

"You mean he could have appointed himself Hokage?"

"Pretty much. Inoichi may have smelled a rat sooner or later from the suddenness, but it's really ANBU on his level that have the ability to be Hokage. Which raises another question…" Ibiki crossed to the table and waved a piece of paper at Kakashi. "Who sent this letter under Shikaku's name?"

Kakashi glanced over it, his Sharingan memorising every jot of ink at a glance. "If it's not the elder council, and it's not ANBU, and it's not the Hokage or those in the Compromised Command protocol, I would imagine a letter is an odd way to go about it. They could have approached the people in question without going to Yūrei personally."

"All the same, going against Yūrei to someone who has complete trust in Yūrei has a good probability of backfiring and getting very dangerous. Even if they trust you as well, a perfect 100% trust versus high trust is still no contest."

Kakashi hummed assent. "Still, that's the sort of thing you take seriously enough to put your life on the line. To know of Yūrei, they would need to have spies in ANBU. So… there's two unknown parties. Zack, who we know Yasha and Yūrei are working for, for whatever reasons; and whoever wanted Yūrei exposed, and one with spies in ANBU."

A few seconds of silence passed before a thought hit Kakashi. "If it was a real shinobi, would they expose themselves to the Hokage once he left… no, once the trust genjutsu is released?"

Ibiki smirked. "I doubt it. Yūrei's particularly skilled at infiltration and assassination; just the two skills needed to kill a whistle-blower inside a village."

"If it's another country, why did they expose him _now?"_ the Copy-Nin wondered. "I think it's someone else, someone not a valid jounin, yet with feelers in ANBU. Maybe Jiraiya?"

"It can't be Jiraiya. He didn't know anything about Yūrei, and he didn't have the genjutsu over him either. He barely interacted with Yūrei at all."

"So… unless Tsunade's built her own ANBU spy network…"

"It has to be Orochimaru," Ibiki realised with a start.

Kakashi suppressed a shiver. He still remembered that day, the pure killing intent making him freeze in his tracks. "Orochimaru kicking out Yūrei… why?"

"Well, the three reasons I can think of are Yūrei's Sharingan, his control over Konoha via genjutsu, or simply his strength. We've heard Orochimaru desires Sharingan, from Yūrei himself, by Jiraiya's spy network. For whatever reasons, Yūrei is providing information to his network freely."

Kakashi blinked, and quickly shoved down the glimmer of hope in his chest. Someone who had to _enforce_ trust over the Hokage couldn't be good news.

"So he could be ousting Yūrei to gain easier access to Sharingan," Ibiki continued, "Or second option, he could be wrestling for control himself, and booting out Yūrei so there's no interference; if, Kami forbid, he managed to place a puppet genjutsu over the Hokage right now, Yūrei's genjutsu would supersede it, in all likelihood. And the final possibility is he's just trying to remove power from the village in preparation for an attack."

Kakashi froze. Yūrei apparently loyal, Itachi apparently loyal… the Uchiha clan unrest… Orochimaru… and this Zack. Damn these conspiracies; it felt like he was missing a piece of a puzzle. Everything was slotting together, but so vaguely he wasn't sure which end was which. "Is there anything that ties Itachi and Yūrei together?"

Ibiki frowned. "Not that I know of. But they were both in the Uchiha community at one point. And both were thought loyal until well… the incident a few months ago. And I understand Yūrei and Itachi were ANBU partners…" his gaze flicked to Kakashi, "as were you."

_'Hm. I forgot he used to work with Itachi a lot.'_ Kakashi's frown deepened in thought. _'Could Yūrei have manipulated Itachi into performing the massacre? I doubt Itachi could manipulate Yūrei vice versa, but Itachi did have Mangekyō… it's slightly possible. So who was genuinely loyal, Itachi or Yūrei… or was it both and the hidden party is the disloyal one?'_

Kakashi briefly considered Danzō, but that wasn't possible. The elder council was under Yūrei's control, Danzō included. That war hawk must have been _furious_ when he found that out.

It had been Kakashi's betrayal of Danzō that let the Hokage know the Kage's former teammate was planning to deceive him. Ironically, the situation wasn't even in Danzō's hands. He was unwittingly Yūrei's puppet even more than Yūrei had been his.

So, Itachi was an Uchiha, worked with Yūrei in ANBU often, and had Mangekyō. Shisui, reportedly killed by Itachi, had likewise attributes.

The Uchiha clan reportedly wiped out by Itachi as well. However, Kakashi had heard rumours Yūrei was involved with that massacre too, which confused the matter further; he wasn't sure why, but Yūrei had been ousted out of the Uchiha clan compound about four years back, for going against the elders or something. The Uchiha were restless back then as well, but quieted down for a few years… up until recently.

It looked like Yūrei was involved in quieting them, and paid the cost, but why would he quiet the unrest and then kill all…

Kakashi's eye widened. _'Unless the unrest was evolving to a civil war, and he was unable to prevent it, so he went more aggressive… No, if that were the case, he has genjutsu that even the Kage doesn't notice – he could easily infect a clan, especially over four years. He knew who all the elders were; if he got them all to trust him, even one at a time, he could quiet things down indefinitely by constantly ordering them to be satisfied with their lot. Then, why let it happen after four years? Was it a one-shot? Was four years significant?'_

His head hurt, and it wasn't just the Sharingan draining his chakra. There were too many questions, and although Kakashi knew he shouldn't, he still felt Yūrei was too loyal to do all of this. He was a paranoid man, true enough – who else would hide their presence with seals constantly – and to be frank, having his commanders under his control via enforced trust wasn't unlike a paranoid person. Danzō certainly seemed the type to send people on suicide missions to get rid of them.

Now that Kakashi really thought about it, he was beginning to realise Yūrei's train of thought: Yūrei had wanted somewhere he could feel absolutely safe. If he had a commander such as Danzō, shadowy and not disinclined to kill someone by sending them on a dodgy mission, Yūrei would want to be able to ask about it and get a trustworthy response.

Danzō accepted zero questions about the mission other than how to get it done. Questioning the need for the mission, or indeed why you were chosen for the team, was questioning Danzō, and akin to insubordination in his eyes. The Hokage might have been more lenient about that, and probably a more honest leader overall, but generally shinobi who survived didn't build trust. They built escape routes and their own way of gaining information. And Yūrei had done both perfectly.

If there were spies in ANBU, most likely from Orochimaru – a fact which Yūrei would know about due to him being 100% trusted by some of those spies – then that would have made Yūrei all the more paranoid.

And his paranoia had paid off. His seals hid everything about him; they still hadn't found Yūrei's home, they hadn't worked out where he had Summoned to/from, and they couldn't even identify him if he was wandering around in Konoha dressed as a civilian, because no one knew his chakra signature. But if Yūrei was contacting Jiraiya's spy network, then Jiraiya would have some idea of where that information was coming from, and so Yūrei would have to be outside the village… at least when he was giving information to the network anyway.

Yūrei's paranoia had granted him spies everywhere, trustworthy commanders (even in dishonourable men), and complete immunity to being tracked. It was genius.

Of course, it granted him no favours about being trusted himself. Trust is a two-way thing built over time. To use a genjutsu on the Hokage was a bit too far; the elder council, fair enough, Yūrei could have justified it with Danzō's way of handling his men. Even placing it on fellow ANBU was fair enough; Yūrei probably knew about the spies in ANBU, so to make sure a lot of the non-spies had his back would be a smart move.

However, the elder council held significant sway when it came to who was to be appointed next Hokage. It'd be the Daimyo's choice at the end, but it was they who gave the candidate list to him.

But it was the Hokage that was the real problem. The Hokage could have forgiven (although he would have demanded removal, most likely) of the genjutsu if it wasn't on himself.

But with the Hokage infected too, it was treason. However, there was no proof Yūrei had acted on his power. In all the time Kakashi had known him, he didn't seem interested in promotions, hated the concept of money (although he still took his paycheque), didn't seem interested in going to other countries, didn't seem that interested in missions, wasn't overly interested in befriending other ANBU (but ended up with plenty of close people anyway, due to his perfect record on the field – just the sort of guy you want to have your back). In short, he wasn't doing anything with his genjutsu, just relaxing in the comfort of being very certain of what's really going on.

Seeing underneath the underneath. Kakashi snorted.

Inoichi gave a long sigh, making the other two jolt at his sudden activity.

"I have good and bad news," the Yamanaka grinned, opening his eyes. "His keyword does remove it."

"And the bad news?"

"It removes his abilities from their memory. Every fight scene. However, they don't forget him completely, and they still remember he was in the battles. They just can't work out how he fought."

Ibiki nodded. "But it does remove the trust?"

"Yep. The genjutsu was ridiculously strong, but I've spent nearly the whole hour checking it. I didn't realise it before, because I've never seen something like this before, but he sort of… recoded the memories."

"He did what?" Ibiki asked incredulously.

"In simpler terms, he took the entire memory system, scattered the memories into intents, then queued them up into their original form again, with a background intent behind them. That's why they trust even his decisions before the genjutsu; their entire memory was rewritten, the whole memory scroll, on a subconscious level. It's as brilliant as it is ridiculously overkill."

Ibiki was taken aback. "Surely that can't be instantaneous. You said the genjutsu implant took seconds."

"Yes. I think Yūrei has Mangekyō Sharingan."

* * *

Kisame walked alongside his shorter partner. Samehada didn't like Yūrei one bit, being unable to detect any chakra from him. "So where were you earlier?"

Yūrei smirked behind his mask. "Unwittingly intimidating someone. No one you care about, so don't worry."

"That goes without saying." Kisame chuckled.

A few minutes of silent walking passed.

Kisame's eyes slid back to his partner. "Yūrei, who do you think is the more powerful of us two?"

Yūrei shrugged with a sigh. "I imagine you have more endurance than me. At least, with Samehada throwing chakra at you all the time. Ninjutsu would just be absorbed, genjutsu distorted by him. And my taijutsu alone is probably not on a level to defeat you. So, assuming I can't get Samehada away from you, your main problems would be my Sharingan, and my seals that would cause you a problem."

Kisame gave a wide grin. "Wouldn't Samehada be able to absorb the chakra in the seals as well?"

Yūrei waved his hand. "Well, not if the chakra for them isn't close to you. I could aim a gravity manipulation seal at the moon and magnetise it, causing meteor strikes, or chuck one nearby you to pull boulders from a particular direction and then release them when they got close; essentially pelting you with chakra-less boulders. Or I'll just release a few lava storage seals. That should probably make some problems for you."

Kisame blinked. "Magnetise the moon? Wouldn't that be ridiculously chakra-taxing? And wouldn't it be impossible to store lava without burning the storage seal?"

"Yep. I'm just giving you hyperbolic examples," Yūrei smirked again. "I'm not going to tell you my _real_ methods for kicking your ass."

Kisame's predatory grin returned. "I like you, Yūrei-san."

* * *

Yasha groaned. He'd been stuck in this room for like, an hour. It was as bland as bland could get; the same desk and two chairs, with a 'mirror' on one side.

He had lay down, leant, strode around, slumped, kicked the table a few times, half-heartedly tried kicking the door (he didn't want to make things worse), and eventually sat back down on the chair, backwards, facing the door. He was so bored he could pull his own hair out.

Meanwhile, Naruto was probably rather confused, waiting at home for Yasha to turn up. Hopefully he'd gone to the Hokage and started whining. _'Well, the old man could pacify him for a few hours. Probably not the whole day though,'_ Yasha mused.

Come another hour and Keito would be flipping his lid, then come an extra two hours and he'd probably have burnt the kiddie base down trying to cook eggs for them. And if he succeeded, there would probably be indigestion later.

Yasha shivered at the thought of sick kids. Imagine the horror of not just dealing with toddlers, but dealing with extra grumpy and whiny and possibly _vomiting_ toddlers. At least Keito knew how to feed Etsuko and Tsuyoshi their bottles of milk. He had been taught and observed by Yasha enough to be trusted with that.

Frankly, Yasha would probably just abuse the knockout jutsu if the kids ever got sick. It'd let their body heal and was technically a form of painkilling. The house wasn't exactly the most hygienic of places, and it was crowded; but it was isolated too, with just Yasha going in and out for the most part, who had his swarms protecting him from nasties. A month of illness-free living wouldn't be improbable.

The door unlocked and Yasha leant forward with a start.

"Hello, kid. Back in here so soon?"

"Oh, Anko-san." Yasha sighed. "Gomen, I got you a nice top, but didn't bring it with me."

"Oh?" Anko smirked, not believing him. "That's fine, you can show it to me after you get out of here."

"Deal, but in the meantime, you can't 'kick my little butt'," Yasha quoted with his fingers.

Anko plonked herself down on the desk, swinging her legs idly. "So, do you know anything about what happened to Ino earlier?"

"I was kinda in the middle of it, yeah." Yasha sighed.

"Oh, really? Do go on." Anko grinned, producing a dango stick.

Yasha opened his mouth then shut it again, shooting her an analysing look. "You're not meant to be in here, are you?"

"Sure I am!" Anko said enthusiastically. "Not that anyone's told me to go in, but you owe me a top, so I thought I'd pay you a visit anyway."

Yasha groaned. "Ibiki's gonna be pissed."

"Ibiki's just a little squishy ball under all that rock armour," Anko dismissed with a wave of her hand. She leant uncomfortably close to Yasha, who frowned at her, resisting the urge to move back.

"I should probably point out I'm officially Ino's girlfriend, and it's not my nature to cheat, Anko-san," Yasha disclosed with his best smile, scrabbling inwardly for his detached persona. If he didn't retreat to it soon he'd be blushing everywhere, which would make Anko win – and a single win was enough to get Anko to keep coming back.

On the other hand, maybe wanting the win was why she was back already. Maybe he was screwed either way. Shit.

"So what did you do with Ino to land yourself in here again, Yasha-_kun?_" Anko purred.

"Oh, I just protected her. This guy named Yūrei dropped an Z-Bomb, so now I have to prove I don't know him," Yasha half-explained.

Anko frowned. "Yūrei? The guy with the black mask?"

"Yes…?"

"Oh, so it was him," she muttered, leaning back.

Yasha leant back forward. Information on people equated to ammo, once you had enough. "How do you know him?"

"He met with me ages ago. When I was still chuunin," she said, eyes gazing far away. "Of course, he did this whole 'do motivational quote then vanish into the ass of space' mystery thing. Took me years to figure out who he was."

"So who is he?"

Anko hummed, then got back to herself. "No idea, brat." She bit the dango off and chewed it viciously. "All I found out was his ANBU codename. Even his own ANBU teammates have no way to identify him from some random civilian."

Yasha frowned. If someone in T&amp;I couldn't identify him, and those guys specialised in information retrieval, there was no way he could expect to identify him either.

_'Wait a second, Yūrei was the one who Sasuke said had joined Itachi in his massacre. Why did I take so long to remember that? Damn kids making me lose sleep and lose brainpower._

_'So that means… Zack __**was**__ working with Yūrei with the Uchiha massacre. But how does that work? Yūrei's in ANBU, and Zack couldn't even gain good enough access into the village to send me in with a decent infiltration plan. So he must have been implanted from years ago, way before me even turning up – maybe before I was even born. I didn't know two people could be sent back in time, and I would think Zack would mention him._

_'Unless… I failed so badly that Yūrei was gone to by Zack after my third failure, and when Zack sent Yūrei back in time, he arrived before me in this reset's timeline. Ow, this is hurting my head. So Zack sent me back three times, sent Yūrei back at least once after I failed all three resets (including this third reset timeline I'm currently in), or… Yūrei may have betrayed Zack.'_

Yasha froze._ 'If Zack sent Yūrei back in time, Yūrei could have advanced in the ranks back in the past, and when he finally advanced to the time he was sent back by Zack, he met with and killed Zack instead of reporting in. It's certainly possible._

_'But if Zack sent him back after sending me back three times, he would've told Yūrei about me and how/why I failed. Yūrei definitely knew about me from __**some**__ source, since he knew I knew Zack. I doubt the T&amp;I guys would've spilt that information from my interrogation session with the Yamanaka, so that leaves Yūrei finding out from elsewhere._

_'But he didn't kill me nor spill the beans on the kids. So… what. He was here to goad me? No, that doesn't seem right. He wouldn't have given me the idea I could beat him by letting me dispel his clone, if that were the case – he'd try to make an "I'm unbeatable" atmosphere to make me feel hopeless.'_

Yasha held out his hand absently and counted the possibilities. _'He's either some intelligent sadist who's playing the long game at kicking my ass, for whatever odd reasons; or he's a good guy who fixed up my mistakes in this reset timeline so my saving the kids worked.'_

He considered for more possibilities, then rolled his eyes. _'Or he's some joker who knows nothing about Zack, but found the name from a T&amp;I leak and just wanted to create confusion by dropping the Z-bomb and running for it. To be honest, that's not very likely. If doing that sort of confusion matched his personality, and there was a T&amp;I leak, I don't need to do anything to be sent back home. Missing-nin aren't exactly reliable information sources.'_

_'So, he's not doing it randomly. He's either a sadistic long-game planner who wants to beat me as slowly as possible, or he's a good guy. But how can I tell? They all look the same: no obviously-hostile interference for years on end, then bam! Act of evil and you're beaten. If he acts to benefit me, then I know he's on my side, but so far he's just been ambiguous. It's really a wait-and-see, which is a fatal mistake if he __**is**__ against me._

_'Wait, Anko met him. What he said to her might key in on his motives.'_

"So what did he-" Oh, she had leant right up against his nose while he was distracted. Yasha leant back quickly, _just about _resisting the urge to scurry away.

"Say to you back then?" Anko finished, grinning. She rolled her eyes. "He stopped me from being bullied and told me the more independent I became, the less love I'll see, but the less pain I would feel."

Yasha blinked, and it felt like a rock had fallen on him. _'That's scary close to my own philosophy… I keep distant so people can't hurt me._

_'Well, most ninja would come up with something like that sooner or later if they had to deal with traitors or poorly skilled/dependent teammates. Better to ease yourself into the idea of letting go early, than to be torn away roughly. A bit like removing a scab. If it turns out the person stays worthy, all the better, but if they don't and you're not emotionally prepared to let them go… it would probably get you killed.'_

He blinked again in realisation. _'So that's why the original timeline Naruto wouldn't abandon Sasuke. He's so emotionally invested in his relationships he cannot dare end one, regardless of what an asshole Sasuke devolves into being. And since no one __**truly**__ wants to get rid of friends, Sasuke must struggle against himself to kill him, too. It's comforting to be strong enough to be independent, but who watches your back while you sleep?_

_'Ye gods, if Sasuke becomes an asshole and Naruto still moves heaven and earth because he was a friend __**at some point**__, how far would Naruto go for me, who literally bought the food and rent for him for months?'_

"Anko, why are you in here?" Ibiki growled.

"Ah, Ibiki-san." Despite her dismissal of him earlier, Anko straightened up and looked sheepish. "Yasha here owes me a favour, so I was capitalising on it."

Ibiki rubbed his forehead wearily. _'She's not conspiring with Yasha. If she was trying to be covert, she could tie a note and send a snake to him.'_

"Scat." Ibiki pointed behind him with his thumb. "And Yasha, you and I are gonna have a Pleasant Discussion."

Yasha rolled his eyes. "So it would seem. Are you going to poison my tea again?"

* * *

Ten minutes later, Ibiki strode back out, addressing the room of shinobi. "Conclusion: he believes Zack may have sent Yūrei, but he doesn't know anything about him. As far as I can tell, he wasn't lying."

"He doesn't show any emotional twitches in that nature," the Hyuuga ANBU Boar offered.

"Likewise," Kakashi agreed, looking tired.

Inoichi nodded his consent. The Third Hokage glanced around and rubbed his forehead roughly. "Well, if he can fool everyone here in what they specialise in, then we've got bigger problems than Yūrei."

"I still think we should use some force." Ibiki scowled. "People like Yasha have so many layers even they themselves aren't sure of their true nature."

Kakashi frowned, looking about to protest, but the Third got there first. "Normally, I would say that's okay, but he has serious political clout, thanks to his involvement with Naruto. Who, I might mention, has ruined several papers in my office by knocking over an inkpot while I was here," he added dryly.

Inoichi nodded his agreement. "Although I don't like him, we can't cover up any torture session with mind seals, either, so all we'd do is make an enemy out of him and our Jinchūriki."

There was silence for a few seconds. Finally the Third Hokage spoke again. "Boar, dismissed."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," he murmured on default as he left.

The village leader turned to the Yamanaka clan head. "Inoichi, get me a list of all the people you suspect have that trust genjutsu. We already know he's S-Rank and his specialties and doujutsu; if they forget what they saw Yūrei's techniques, that's a small price to pay for being taken out of under his thumb. We'll use the keyword in a sealed room with all the suspected targets, after of course suppressing their chakra. If you have the slightest suspicion, include them on the list – the keyword doesn't divulge any secrets, so we can afford to use it on someone who doesn't have the genjutsu."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"I want it as soon as possible – remember the village's security is at risk. Will you need Kakashi to provide protection while you work on it?"

Inoichi analysed Kakashi's half-lidded exhausted expression. "I don't think he'll be necessary _specifically_, although with your permission, I would like to use the keyword on an ANBU squad today in advance, so they can protect me while I get the full list in order."

"Sure, pick who you want, I'll sign it. Ibiki, monitor Lion, and do some _passive_ interrogation once he wakes, verify what Inoichi said just in case."

"Hai, Hokage-sama. And what of Yasha?"

The Third gazed in at the highly-bored-looking boy through the glass and sighed. "Might as well release him. If Yasha's not working with Yūrei, what Yūrei did and said changes nothing about Yasha, or how we should treat him."

Inoichi frowned at the boy who had saved Ino twice. Even if the first time was his own endangering, the second was genuine heroism. He'd have to be careful to defuse Ino's response to what Yasha did earlier.

* * *

"Thank Kami that's over." Yasha sighed, breathing the fresh air outside his home with much relief.

"Go and get my top already. You've made me curious," Anko ordered, pushing him.

Anko had volunteered to body-flicker Yasha to his home, no ulterior motives of course. Yasha rolled his eyes, but since he was also curious about Anko's reaction, he hurried up to get it.

"'Oppai'?" Anko read off the camouflage hoodie. "You got me a hoodie that says 'boobs'?"

She tried not to laugh and failed. "Oh, this is just _perfect_," she cooed, hugging him (much to his horror). "You are now my favouritist brat _ever!"_

"Yay?" The preteen responded uncertainly, squirming in her hold.

"Oh, don't you worry, precious little bean. You and I will be seeing a _lot_ of each other now." Anko smirked, tapping him on the nose. Then she strode off, still holding out the hoodie and sniggering at it.

"Oh Kami," Yasha groaned. "Two weeks until graduation. Two weeks. I can make it two weeks."

All he had to do was manage the kids, Naruto, Ino, Kurenai/Anko…

* * *

A week passed without incident. During that time, Inoichi gave the keyword to all the ANBU members, the elder council, and the Hokage.

Finally, after that, a certain scene occurred in the Hokage's office.

"I thought I'd best sum it up in a written report," Ibiki said calmly.

The Third frowned at the paper. "The logic is sound. So you think it was Orochimaru who kicked out Yūrei?"

"No one else makes sense. The other parties either don't know about Yūrei, or would have come forward overtly, even if it's directly to you."

The Hokage nodded slowly. "True enough. A careful Konoha member reporting Yūrei's control would still have told me who they were, once it was confirmed I had it released. But no one's spoken to Inoichi or me in a way that indicated they reported the trust genjutsu. Jiraiya didn't know about it until I told him, and he wasn't under the genjutsu either."

"Plus, assuming the jounin commander's name is a pretty serious crime, I doubt an official member would use that method," Ibiki continued.

The Hokage hummed agreeably. "So, Orochimaru booted out Yūrei. Either because he wants control of his own, or because Yūrei, whether for his own motives or not, is strengthening Konoha by working for it."

"I did hear he had a perfect mission record," Ibiki probed.

The Hokage nodded again. "No personnel deaths until Shisui, and even then, it was a mission success. He was a powerful asset, even given the trust genjutsu. Whether motivated for his own goals, Zack's goals or genuinely Konoha's goals, he was benefiting Konoha a great deal by staying here."

A minute passed while the Hokage ran over Orochimaru's personality in his head. Then a thought came to him and he chuckled, then started laughing.

"Sir?" Ibiki asked.

"It's… just…" The Third Hokage grinned uncontrollably, his face suddenly seeming a lot younger. "Our best assassination and infiltration agent has fled Konoha. Since then, he's supplied us with some information about Orochimaru through Jiraiya's network."

Ibiki felt a grin appear as he caught onto the Third's train of thought. "So, Yūrei obviously knows where Orochimaru is, and he's in touch with us through the network…"

The Third Hokage's grin grew wider. "So what do you think would happen if I send a message to Yūrei about who caused his genjutsu to be discovered?"

* * *

**AN:** Yūrei is gonna want Orochimaru's head on a platter, that's what. Shit is gonna go DOWN.

Plz review or my dimension-crossing machine will break again.


	31. Advancing to the next level

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 31: Advancing to the next level_**

* * *

**AN:** Last chapter summary: Yūrei gave Inoichi the keyword to remove his trust genjutsu, and it's revealed his genjutsu must be Mangekyō and chances are, distort time while it's placed. Yūrei also knows [of?] Zack. Yasha saved Ino, but Inoichi still doesn't like him.

And the Hokage is sic'ng Yūrei on Orochimaru. Of course, the Hokage doesn't know they're not paired up in Akatsuki or that they don't need to _physically_ meet to report in to Nagato_…_ but if the two _do_ meet up, hide yo kids, hide yo wife, hide yo doujutsu.

I think Nagato will think something's fishy if Yūrei suddenly goes from heavily disliking Orochimaru to wanting to be partnered with him again. He'll have to play reverse matchmaker to stop them meeting up.

The journey continues_…_ advancing to the next phase_…_

* * *

Itachi blinked, standing on the surface of the water. He had never visited Ame before, and he knew it was the Land of _Rain_, but still… it had been raining all of yesterday, as well. He had arrived late in the day, considered the rain and slept overnight on the nearest land outside the rain's perimeter – so on the rather likely chance Akatsuki refused him entry, and decided to take him out as a spy, he'd be at his peak and at least capable of retreat.

Even if the leader did admit him, missing-nin didn't make for trustworthy teammates. He'd best be on his guard regardless.

Kami, what if _Yūrei_ was partnered with him?

He walked through the rain, hood up, his Sharingan suddenly noting the trace amounts of chakra in the rain. Rain had been going on the whole night and all day – how much chakra did this Akatsuki member have?

If indeed it was one of them, but he had not heard of Hanzo using something like this. No doubt he'd been detected as soon as he entered. The city would be reached in about fifteen minutes at walking pace – he could get there in three if he hurried, but he didn't want to unnerve whoever was at the end of this rain.

Two minutes later, he blinked, as an orange-haired woman stood in front of him. With a seal-less chakra expel Itachi recognised as a Summon, two orange-haired men appeared beside her, standing in front of him. All three looked emotionless, and their purple rippled eyes gazed at him emptily.

Itachi fought back the instincts to move into a battle stance or tense up. _'If the rain hadn't had chakra in it, I would've set up a crow for a reverse-summon… but too late now.'_

Red clouds with white lining; this was Akatsuki, all right. So, was Hanzo liaising with them?

Hanzo wasn't the type to trust people, and Itachi _had_ heard rumours of a rebellion involving him, but Hanzo was considered to be on such a level that Sannin were awarded _their own title_ for achieving a mere _draw_ fighting against him. _Three_ of the Sannin only achieved a _draw_.

If Akatsuki had managed to defeat Hanzo, then Jiraiya had the right idea keeping watch on them. No matter what type of heinous crimes an undercover agent had to commit, people of that level could only be taken down by careful undercover infiltration and planning.

You could literally walk up to Orochimaru's bed while he slept, cover the entire room's perimeter with explosive notes, and activate them all at once, and yet be rather confident he would waltz out very much alive and warmed up for a fight. A Sannin was no slacker, Hanzo even less so – and whoever beat _him_ had to be simply ridiculous.

"Uchiha Itachi," the summoning woman said calmly. "What brings a Konoha missing-nin to Amekagure?"

Itachi considered his words carefully – his personality was meant to be cold and calculating. "I am aware of Akatsuki's location. I want to hear your goals, and perhaps to work for you as a way to attain greater power."

The three didn't react, not even to exchange glances. Itachi had the distinct impression that they weren't even there. Like an advanced puppet. Edo Tensei perhaps? Those eyes seemed vaguely familiar, even though he'd never seen them before. Maybe he had read of them?

Then again, it wasn't impossible to wear contact lenses with fake doujutsu. It rarely fooled the more advanced ninja due to the chakra being differently arranged in the eyes' pathways, but Itachi couldn't detect the chakra emitting from the people properly anyway.

Itachi analysed their eyes more closely, since his Sharingan was already activated before they arrived. The purple eyes were a doujutsu, at least. The chakra was received from some unknown source; it was like their chakra came out of nowhere, rather than a cyclical flow emitting from the stomach, and the chakra was distorting the eye in a way obvious to his Sharingan. It was highly likely they had some sort of seal that changed the eye's chakra pathways while it made them controllable as puppets.

There could be an Sharingan-obfuscated seal on the bodies. The eyes appeared to have the most chakra, but it was hard to tell with the sourceless powering. Vital organs had far less than normal, as well.

Someone who could control three human-size puppets, with no detectable strings, was worryingly strong; a Summon of two equal-size puppets, with no chakra string flaring while the summon occurred to boot. It had to be an Edo Tensei, and the black rods embedded in their bodies had to be the key to controlling them. It was the most obvious physical anomaly.

It could just be a menacing property, but all that metal looked more than decorational. Besides, heavy metal meant for extra weight, and there was the Raiton-weakness aspect; plus, any impact, depending on the arrangement and type of metal, could cause shrapnel damage.

"We are aware you massacred your entire clan. What reason was this?"

"Konoha is full of fools!" Itachi spat, wedging conviction and disdain in his tone as strongly as he could, feeling something clench inside him. "I had reached my limit with my clan trying to dictate and control me. I require higher-class battles if I ever want to reach my full potential."

"I see," the woman replied neutrally. "And your goal is power alone?"

"Power, and independence. And I'm no fool; I can't yet be a complete solo player. So, I will use Akatsuki as a stepping stone to greater heights."

Quite a distance away, beside a white-haired, bony figure, a blue-haired women leant in to mutter, "He's quite different to Yūrei."

Nagato smirked slightly. "Indeed. He may yet be of use. Sharingan against Sharingan, fire to fight fire… since you have so many concerns about Yūrei's trustworthiness."

Konan frowned. "It's not his trustworthiness, or even how good he is at the job. He's worse than Orochimaru with hiding his goals; nothing shakes him, nothing seems to drive him. His ANBU records that Zetsu acquired show a disdain of war and no attachment to any nation, and there is quite a ruckus going on in the inner ranks of T&amp;I since he left. We haven't managed to get any more details on that, but he was a well-trusted member of ANBU, and it deeply shook them to have him participate in the Uchiha massacre."

Nagao shifted in the machine. "A healthy dislike of war is a good thing. That should commit him to our cause."

"Your speeches never drive him, Nagato." Konan sighed exasperatedly. "Unlike Orochimaru and apparently Itachi, whose goal is power, his power level has turned away every partner of his. Even Kakuzu has commented on how hard it is to get a read on him, and that man is ancient, with experience to match."

"Sasori refused him due to his Sharingan seeing right through all his 'art', Kakuzu dislikes it due to his paranoia… And Yūrei claims Orochimaru displays a bit _too_ much interest in his techniques, and he doesn't want them stolen. Frankly, if Kisame hadn't turned up, we'd had to place him with Hidan. Who apparently swears too much for Yūrei," Nagato snorted slightly to himself at a missing-nin's supposed civility, "so the two dislike working together."

"We can't risk having him running solo," Konan insisted. "He's far too questionable."

"I understand your distrust, but I think his ANBU track record, and hatred of war, allows him to be trustworthy. He will no doubt be sympathetic to our true goal."

Konan's frown only deepened. "I hesitate to say this, Nagato, but I doubt he'd want another person than _him_ in command of the world."

The man known as Pein smirked, licking his dry lips. "And if it comes to that, what could he do against Kami?"

"Well, he is of indeterminate, but significant, power. He could do a lot of damage, even if he was not to win. For all we know, he is as powerful as Orochimaru. He needn't even attack you to cripple our plans; a simple revelation is sufficient to hinder them."

"If you would like, I could partner him with Orochimaru, and wait for a victor," Nagato offered sarcastically. "Besides, Sannin levels are only a portion of my own power."

Konan's frown vanished, recognising the bait for what it was. "That could only decrease our organisation's power. While I distrust him, heavily, he is nonetheless completely flawless in mission execution so far."

Nagato nodded at Itachi. "And what of him?"

"Itachi?" Konan hummed thoughtfully. "He has Mangekyō, and that only comes from killing your closest friend. He has placed torturous genjutsu to enforce his brother to turn on him, which, if successful, will grant him an even greater doujutsu and challenge later. He has openly destroyed a huge portion of his native village, much like Kakuzu… I think it's safe to say he is genuine in his missing-nin status, and his ideals. And we have one last ring to use with the Bijū Sealing technique."

"Fine. I will accept him."

Back on the sea far away, the ginger-haired woman spoke, face suddenly animating. "Fine. You are welcome to Akatsuki, Itachi-san, but naturally there will be a probationary period."

Itachi nodded agreement, and fell in pace with the three, with the woman leading and the two men behind him. He tried to suppress the shivers riding up his spine as he approached closer and closer to the metallic city.

* * *

"Burn that page for me, I cannot erase the time of sleep…" Yūrei sang to himself, hopping onto the trade cart. With his Sharingan, he found the seal within the book, and pushed some chakra in. "…I cannot be loved, so set me free…"

With a tiny poof, a slip of paper appeared. "I cannot deliver you love nor caress your soul, so…"

His eyes scanned the paper, and he rolled his eyes. _'Orochimaru, of course. I thought I dealt with Kabuto, but I suppose it must have happened eventually.'_

"So turn that page for me, I cannot embrace the touch that you give_…_" With a flare of fire chakra, the paper incinerated in the palm of his closed glove, seals resisting the small flame from destroying the material.

With another deft hop, the cart shook lightly as he flew tens of feet through the air. "I cannot find solace in your words…"

The wizened farmer turned around to gaze at his cart, frowning in the darkness. Even for an ANBU undercover, he only detected the leaving. "Message delivered, track the target," he muttered into the mike.

Kakashi tapped his sword on his back, silently reminding himself why he was here. His Sharingan tracked the figure as he flew through the sky, blisteringly fast. There was no chakra to track, and no scent, as usual.

If he lost Yūrei, it would be nigh impossible to find him again in this darkness. His Sharingan could only read the motions, and there wasn't many from the fluid movement.

"Anything, Jiraiya?" he muttered into his mike, rolling silently as he hit the ground.

"I can see a void moving instead of his chakra, so yes, I do have a lock on him. But I won't be able to maintain this form for much longer, even with Ma and Pa here."

Kakashi was listening as hard as possible, trying to pick up the whispers of Yūrei's footsteps, but he knew all too well why he was called Ghost. He frowned as Yūrei continued singing, "I cannot deliver you your love or caress your soul, so_…_"

"Something's wrong, he's singing out loud. He's never this obvious." Kakashi racked his brains. "Is there an Akatsuki partner he's nearby?"

"He's paired with Kisame, judging from his last report. We've got four full ANBU teams and my handsome self with us, we can handle two S-Ranks. But no, I can't see anyone else nearby, not even anyone with suppressed chakra."

The 'farmer' spoke up, still at the cart. "He was noisier during his leaving. He might be thrown off by the information he just read."

Jiraiya nodded, his tone hardened. "This is an S-Rank criminal with crucial knowledge on Konoha. We need him brought in, even if his intentions are good."

"Roger that," Kakashi growled, speeding up his run. "I'll get his attention, Jiraiya, you track to see whether he does some trick to run for it. You two teams, I want a standard circular pattern, back first."

"This is Boar. I can see him now, like Jiraiya said, as a void."

"He's leaving footprints," Lion noted calmly. "You're right Hound, he's never this obvious."

"Either he's shaken by what he read or he's playing us."

"I'll be on him in about half a minute," Kakashi muttered, his Sharingan straining to see the dark figure against the dark forest. It was a good thing the doujutsu also granted night vision, or this would be futile already.

Half a minute…

* * *

"And then?" Inoichi prompted.

Kakashi rolled his eyes, his posture defeated. "He was playing us. He was a shadow clone. Before I even got close enough to jump him, he burned the message we sent, and poof."

"Still, we now know he can be tracked," Jiraiya said heartily. "All we need to do is give him a place to be, and any doujutsu or my Sage Mode can track him."

The Third nodded, but Kakashi shook his head, much less enthused than Jiraiya. "The problem is, he uses shadow clones for _everything_. I knew he did that in his ANBU days. It's either his standard paranoia, or he knows what we're doing. Even in ANBU, he would use the same trick, even when reporting to briefings, going to meetings, getting food…" Kakashi blinked as everyone in the room sat up straighter. He reconsidered what he just said. "Ah…"

Jiraiya grinned, working on a plan already. "Exactly, food. That's one of his character traits: he likes the chocolate from Land of Rice. And shadow clones can't transmit eaten food back to the owner as energy, unless it's fully digested, which takes hours. Summons won't work on things that don't have blood. So the clone will have to deliver the food to his original self by hand, or the original purchases it."

The Third turned to the Copy-Eye Nin with a puff of smoke. "How often would he eat it, Kakashi?"

Kakashi considered. "Every few months he'd get a large delivery, enough to pass as a ANBU-size full-course meal about… five times over. I expect he sealed it and ate it as snacks randomly."

The Hokage nodded smartly, assessing. "So, how do we draw him in? We can't invade Rice and monitor all their chocolate suppliers. Not only is mass observation obvious, but Rice is a neutral country; if we don't antagonise other countries with our presence, there'll be missing-nin hiding there that will spread the information around."

"We'll have to do something better. Make a bait that's so obvious he'll still take it."

"Such as?"

Jiraiya grinned, considering his own Icha Icha strategies. "Some new limited-edition chocolate, best of the best, only available at one store. Get the rumours out, but don't talk to my network directly. When he comes in to buy it, we nab him."

"How do we stop others from buying it?"

Kakashi shrugged. "We don't, just give them some plain chocolate and genjutsu them into thinking it's amazing."

"The effect of word-of-mouth will spread everywhere, and with it, rising the number of customers, rising the amount of genjutsu needed. Plus, repeat customers. This will create a huge amount of work," the Third Hokage considered out loud.

"Perfect for hiding it," Jiraiya countered. "He won't think we'll put so much effort into something so mundane. Even if chocolate gets sent through the black market somehow, the others will assume the stolen stuff is a knockoff, because the buyers will think it's amazing but the next pair of hands will think it's plain."

"On the off chance Yūrei sends someone else in to buy it, he'll notice the genjutsu on them when they return. If he comes personally, out of his normal suppressing seals, we won't know it's him anyway."

"Make it so they can only eat it in the shop, under the guise of keeping the recipe and taste secret. It'll limit buyers too, and we can kill the genjutsu as they leave."

The Third nodded. "I like the idea, but we can only do it once. Draw up a full plan. I need personnel from those who get the ingredients to those who sell. Obviously only the sellers need to be under our thumb.

"It could work, but we're looking a mission that lasts the better part of a year, given the word-of-mouth speed between traders, and how long we'd need a shop there to seem genuine. We'll need at least three ANBU teams ready for that entire period, at least one of them with doujutsu. It's a viable method, and the only viable method we have right now, but nowhere near quick, guaranteed, or lower on manpower."

"Still, we're getting somewhere."

* * *

The bell rang, and the class hurriedly dispersed, with two staying behind.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Oh, hi Yasha-kun," Sakura greeted, waving weakly.

"You look a bit dizzy there…" Yasha prompted concernedly.

"I'm not really adjusted… to my new diet yet," Sakura explained brokenly, holding her stomach.

"A new diet, huh…" Yasha recalled what he remembered of the instruction scroll and his face fell. _'Come to think of it, now her rival Ino has her own boyfriend, Sakura is gonna feel __**horribly**__ pressured into getting her own. And Kami, she has no idea what Sasuke wants in a girl… or that he's not interested in girls at all until he's done killing his brother… and Yūrei. She's going to make herself ill.'_

"Why do you think I went for Ino as a girlfriend, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura balked at the personal question. "I guess, you liked… her…" she floundered, "…hair?"

Yasha shrugged. "I could go out with any girl, Sakura. Every girl has good and bad traits. If I can't accept the bad about a girl, say, she has a hair length I don't like, then I'm dating her looks, not really her."

"Hai?" Sakura nodded, trying to follow his train of thought.

"So if I liked Ino because she had long hair, if she's in a ninja battle and gets it cut off, am I allowed to not like her anymore?"

"Yes…? Wait, no… that'd be cruel," Sakura said slowly, then realised what he was saying.

Yasha nodded. "If you attract Sasuke's attention by changing something about yourself, then you're just finding out he doesn't like _you_, he likes your _physical attributes_. Your weight, hair length, hair colour, forehead size, etc. And attributes are temporary, so the love is as well – so it's not love, it's lust. Don't ruin yourself to get a boyfriend who likes ruined things."

"Why would _you_ care?" Sakura asked in surprise.

_'Why would you, indeed,'_ Ino thought angrily, listening outside the classroom.

Yasha sighed deeply, gazing upwards in thought. "How do I put this… I feel like I owe you for something. I don't know why."

"Oh." That didn't explain anything. "Well, thanks, Yasha-kun. I'll see you tomorrow," she said distantly, picking up her bag and heading out.

Yasha watched her go with a frown. _'To be fair, an opportunity that easy and that straightforward to help someone isn't something I'd pass up anyway. In a scenario like this, if I help her, I gain a favour and good opinion from her. If I don't help her, nothing will happen, but her own self-destruction.'_ He rolled his eyes, briefly looking morbid as he swung his own bag onto his shoulder. _'Sometimes it pains me to see how immature kids can be.'_

As he strode out, giving a cursory glance around and out the window to look for observing eyes, he reconsidered. _'Actually, no, people. I would say kids, but adults play the role fairly well too.'_

It was graduation day in two days. In that time, Yasha had gotten more accustomed to the kids, and to having little sleep. Instead of dropping dead on the school desk every day, he did it every afternoon. Although he still had no idea what kind of diabolical genes had kids crying noisily at random hours, but it seemed to be 'normal', so he just had to deal with it.

Truth be told, Keito had a harder job. Unlike Yasha, he couldn't sleep at a school. If Etsuko and/or Tsuyoshi had kept him awake most of the night, he still had to watch the toddlers during the day, afternoon, etc. He didn't get a break.

Not a huge amount Yasha could do about that, unfortunately. If he stayed over too much, he upset Naruto, not to mention he lost out on sleep as well. Lack of sleep was not something you could cover up easily, or adjust yourself for.

You couldn't adjust for your lack of intelligence, slow reflexes, or sluggish movements and thoughts. They were all subconscious, and even if you noted yourself doing it, your performance didn't improve. The best you could do is keep a handle on your frustration; if you didn't get much sleep you got frustrated about things much more easily. That took a few seconds, though, so you could-

"Yasha." Ino's voice interrupted his thoughts, his jolt suppressed by his tiredness (another thing to note).

"Hey, Ino-chan." Yasha turned to her, something registering in the back of his mind. Her expression was taut; bad news bears it was.

"Why are you talking to Forehead Girl?" Ino asked tersely. "Don't you know she's my enemy?"

Yasha rubbed his face wearily, using the motion to give him time to think of a response. "Weren't you and Sakura old friends?"

"That was years ago!"

"Hold on." Yasha held up his hand. "You were old friends and why did you stop? Because you both wanted to date Sasuke, right?" He waited a second for the realisation to dawn, and pulled some conviction into his voice. "Well, now you've got _me_, so stop treating me like I'm a springboard between Sasuke. Either you want me, in which case you'll be fine with Sakura going after Sasuke; or you want Sasuke, in which case you're being very cruel to me. So, are you being cruel to Sakura, or to me?"

Ino floundered, her anger and self-righteousness defusing in seconds. "It's not… like that…" she stammered. "It's just…"

Yasha shook his head sharply. "No, Ino. It's _exactly_ like that. You were so busy blackmailing me you forgot: only the worst kind of people use blackmail."

"It's not like that!" Ino cried out indignantly. "I do have feelings for you too!"

"Feelings to manipulate me and use me as practice for Sasuke," Yasha said flatly.

"No! Stop that, Yasha!" Ino snapped, her hand smacking his cheek before she realised what she was doing.

Yasha resisted the urge to get angry or to rub his cheek. This was a crisis moment. How he handled the next few seconds would change the entire direction of their relationship.

Ino looked stricken as his cheek began to redden. "It's not… I just…"

"We're out of the Academy tomorrow, Ino. You don't have to worry about class popularity. It's time to move on from this blackmail thing," Yasha stated calmly, stepping closer.

"I just…" she began, her voice trailing off as her eyes fixated on his own.

Yasha inched closer until his eyes were barely a hand's width away from hers. "I can love any girl, Ino, but you've got to stop this."

* * *

Iruka scratched his head, closing the door to the teacher's lounge and trying his best to keep the coffee level in the cup.

A boy's voice came from down the hall. "…can date some other time once we have mission schedules sorted out." Some footsteps trailed past him. "See you later Ino!" Yasha called.

Iruka stopped fiddling with the lock and glanced up. "Ah, Yasha-kun. Make sure you get some good sleep tonight for the graduation tomorrow!" he called after the retreating figure.

The brunette troublemaker glanced back. "Sure, Iruka-sensei. Don't be too harsh on Naruto!"

"I have to test each student equal… ah, he's gone," Iruka sighed, turning back to his room. He blinked at Ino standing there, her mouth open and face frozen in shock. "Um, Ino-chan? Are you okay?"

She continued gaping for a good few seconds, before the concerned teacher started waving his hand in front of her face. "I… he… strong… first…"

Iruka waited, but she didn't explain, just kept opening and shutting her mouth. "Maybe you should go home, Ino-chan," he pressed gently. "You look a bit feverish."

"Hai…" she said distantly, taking a step forward and looking like she would walk into a wall if she wasn't careful. Iruka gazed after her with a frown.

* * *

"Oh Kami, no. _Nooooooooooo_," Yasha groaned as he woke again to hear Etsuko whimpering, starting to build volume.

He glanced at the clock, his eyes clearing up and night-vision already on, and rolled his eyes. "4:21am. Her timing is _impeccably_ bad."

Giving it a few minutes, he assured himself she wasn't going to stop, so with another quieted but prolonged groan, he heaved himself off the floor and went to check on her, carefully stepping past the noisily snoozing toddlers.

"Yasha-sama, don't you have graduation tomorrow?" came a quiet voice, nearly making him misstep onto Ryūji's shoulder.

He turned and looked at the sleeping toddlers, finding the one with their eyes open with his night-vision. "Naoki-chan, yes, but you kids come first. All I have to do is survive until the end of the week, then some of you brats will be some other person's problem. Come a month and I'll be able to sleep properly again."

"Is that what's important to you?" Naoki mumbled with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

_'Damn Naoki, she's pulling a sympathy card. She's just like a Nara. Worse than one. Maybe one of the Uchiha had an affair,'_ Yasha bemoaned, switching directions and moved back to sit down beside Naoki. His tone was patient. "I told you before, I can't just pull money out of thin air. I had a bunch already, but I can't get any more. This place costs rent, and you guys eat food like it's going out of style." He smiled, tucking her back in. "Now go back to sleep."

"Hai, Yasha-sama," she replied, closing her deep black eyes again.

Yasha resumed his movement back to the whimpering baby and midway started growling under his breath. "You had better fall asleep in the next two minutes or I'm going to exenterate your pelvis and bat you to unconsciousness with it, you frustratingly cute little demon."

He glanced at the clock, frowning. _'I should probably get back to Naruto's place – I mean my place – I mean the other place. Whatever. It'll put an overshadow on Naruto's memory of graduation day if I'm not there when it starts. The question of where I was would just eat in his subconscious. Maybe about 6am or something._'

* * *

A few hours later, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and an annoying idiot was shaking his martyr roommate wildly.

"It's graduation day, Yasha-kun!" Naruto grinned widely, shaking his best friend.

"Oh _goodie,"_ Yasha groaned, with sarcasm so thick his roommate nearly choked on it. "Sure to be something to remember."

Naruto couldn't keep still, vibrating where he stood, energy levels off the charts even more than usual. "I should hope so, dattebayo! I've improved a lot since you, well, taught me the syllabaries. I read all the textbooks and caught up."

"Just like I did," Yasha pointed out, holding one arm over his eyes to block the sunlight.

Naruto nodded quickly. "Yeah. We should both pass easy now, dattebayo!"

"Well, I'll buy you Ichiraku when I see you with your headband." Yasha smiled back, rolling out of bed with another groan. "Are we late yet?"

"No, we got half an hour. I was hoping we'd have… you know…" The blond turned his pleading eyes on his housemate.

Yasha shook his head as he made his way to the bathroom. "No _way_ are you having ramen for breakfast!"

Naruto blinked in surprise, calling out indignantly. "I didn't mean that, baka! I just wanted a good graduation day breakfast."

Yasha rolled his eyes at himself in the bathroom mirror. "You mean a greasy bacon and egg sandwich with milk tea?"

"Yeah!"

Cue another eye-roll, and then Yasha frowned. He knew what would happen today. He'd never practised Bunshin with Naruto so the graduation test should remain predictable: the blond would fail.

And then at some point, Naruto would be goaded into helping Mizuki steal a scroll. Yasha wanted in on that scroll; but Naruto would be too ashamed to let his friend see him pre-scroll and it'd be part of Naruto's 'stealing mission' to hide the fact he stole it, so Yasha would find his tracking skills tested.

Yasha hadn't tried improving his tracking skills, come to think of it. The brunette frowned at himself in the mirror. Too busy with genjutsu training, baby-watching and Ino-deflecting, not to mention catching up on years of missed shinobi education. He couldn't really blame himself for the setback, but he needed to track Naruto after school.

He knew the scroll was stolen from the Hokage tower. His best bet was to head there and watch carefully. He wasn't sure how Naruto got out in the original timeline, so it might be difficult. Maybe Mizuki helped somehow.

Naruto was good at evading, but he wasn't good at hiding. All Yasha had to do was hit him with a weak mental connection and he'd find it hard to lose him. Yasha had a good idea of how the blond thought, but Naruto's improvising skills were ridiculously good.

No, actually, the best way was just to jump into Mizuki's mind just as he told Naruto where to go. But if push came to shove, Yasha would just follow Naruto at his side, overtly. He could BS his way into that, regardless of what mission Naruto thought he had. Yasha could also threaten him as a last resort, use some heart-wrenching line like 'friends protect each other on missions; either I protect you or I'm not your friend'.

Then, Yasha would read the scroll – after knocking out Naruto. No one could know Yasha could create shadow clones, or there'd be no point to him having it. If he had shadow clones, he could do two things at once, and one of those things secretly. If people knew he had that jutsu, both Yashas would be watched equally.

If Naruto didn't know shadow clones by the end of today, Yasha would have to teach the blond himself, and make him swear not to tell. But, to be honest, he wasn't going to jump into doing a B-Rank today; the only thing Yasha was planning do today was copy out the scroll, as quickly as possible; learning shadow clones was gonna have to wait until later.

He wasn't sure he had the chakra to achieve a shadow clone and from what he remembered, not having enough meant death. He was also _very_ interested in the additional techniques. Apparently Naruto stopped on Kage Bunshin, maybe because it said Kage he wanted to master it first, or maybe he just thought the first technique was the easiest, and he would only advance to the second once the first was done.

And maybe he was right… or maybe not? If there _were_ even more interesting techniques in that scroll, Yasha had only one night to copy them out. Fallout would be _huge_ if he was caught, but judging from Naruto getting away with stealing and learning it under ignorance, saying that he was watching out for Naruto and getting curious wouldn't be too surprising for him; they knew how short a leash he had Naruto on. He could fake ignorance of the techniques being forbidden too, since ninjas wanting to learn more powerful techniques was hardly unusual.

The hard part was _when_ Naruto/Yasha's hiding/reading place would be discovered. It happened after Naruto had already learnt it originally, but there was no exact time. It would be a complete guess as to what time to abort copying the scroll and let Naruto read on.

If he did it too early, Yasha would be cutting off his ability to look at that scroll for a good many years, and lose him invaluable battle information. Too late, and Naruto would never have his signature technique, or Yasha would be discovered with Naruto KO'd and they'd assume it was _Yasha's_ ploy to get the Scroll of Sealing.

He didn't have to sneak up on Naruto once he found him reading the scroll, but he did have to stick around. Naruto found out he had the Kyuubi on that night, and Yasha needed an excuse to know of the fox. Surprising Naruto by not reacting to the knowledge later would _heavily_ strengthen the emotional bond. And knowing of the Kyuubi allowed Yasha to make suggestions, even going so far as to use mind control jutsu on the fox. Half of the point of a Jinchūriki was controlling the Bijū, regardless of _how_. If Yasha controlled someone who controlled a Bijū, it was the same amount of power as controlling the Bijū himself. Especially with someone as malleably simple-minded as Naruto.

Yasha had never confirmed whether he knew Naruto had the Kyuubi – in fact, during Ibiki's questioning, he had just played mind games – but it was _deadly_ serious. While it would build the emotional bond in Naruto's eyes, if Yasha displayed that knowledge without a good excuse (like Mizuki's rant), Yasha would be in _deep_ trouble with Konoha's higher ranks.

Ironically, the secret could be easily found by a ninja under Henge and eavesdropping, but Yasha's bloodline made that a questionable possibility. When he was under Henge, he gave off considerably higher KI than normal, and his normal aura already caused suspicion.

Yasha sighed, wetting his hand and running it over his face, scrubbing a bit. Today would have several problems: first, tracking Naruto; second, copying the scroll undiscovered; third, allowing Naruto to read the scroll before it got too late for Naruto to learn Kage Bunshin before Iruka found the blond; fourth, staying close to Naruto while not being spotted by the few billion clones he undoubtedly pulled out of his butt during rage mode, so he could hear Mizuki's rant about Naruto being the Kyuubi. When Naruto got serious, he got a lot stronger, due to his high stamina. He could waste chakra like water but he still got the job done.

When he was _mad_, well… Yasha hadn't ever seen that. Naruto took beatings from the civilians without fighting back, up until Yasha turned up. None of them dared threaten Yasha, who made their skin crawl when he so much as glared at them.

Iruka would be one of the original two who helped Naruto start learning properly, help him fulfil his dream… the other encouragement being the Hokage. Naruto would go ape once Mizuki attacked Iruka – that'd be something to see.

"Come _on_, Yasha!" The yell made Yasha jump, and he glared at the door. "Stop overthinking things, dattebayo!"

"Intellectuals think a lot!" Yasha shouted back.

"I don't care what they do, dattebayo!" Naruto retorted. "I'm hungry and you're not gonna have time to cook soon!"

"Make it yourself then!" Yasha yelled back, absentmindedly wetting his hands and running them through his hair to remove the bedhead. "You've got hands and you know where the stuff is!"

"It won't mean the same!" Naruto called back. Yasha rolled his eyes, checking his reflection and stepping back out the bathroom.

"I guess it _won't_ mean the same if you burn the house down making your Special Graduation Breakfast," he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes again for good measure.

"Oi!" Naruto jumped him, making him stagger and nearly topple on the hallway's planked floor. Yasha grabbed his arms lest Naruto rip his clothes, making an awkward piggyback.

He took a few steps. "Oh, so this is it. I have to take little Naruto to the table."

"Yeah!" Naruto whooped.

Yasha grunted. This idiot weighed a ton. "Fine, and afterwards, do you need help getting dressed too, Hokage-sama?"

Naruto immediately flushed and scowled. "Since you offered, fine."

Yasha dumped him on the chair (they still hadn't replaced them when they were damaged). He moved over to the fridge, starting to make the breakfast. "You shouldn't call my bluffs, Naruto-_chan_."

Naruto's face went a deeper red, but he persisted. "No, no, I'm serious, dattebayo."

"Fine, I'm serious too."

The two glared at each other. Yasha turned on the oven, got the frying pan and cracked an egg over it, keeping up his glare.

Yasha carried on adding ingredients to the frying pan, doing everything without looking at the stove, maintaining the glare without blinking. Naruto's expression became perturbed. "That's kinda weird, dattebayo."

"So's your face," Yasha retorted, still glaring despite his face beginning to ache.

Naruto blinked confusedly, and Yasha smirked at his loss, turning to the pan and chuckling at a bacon rasher firmly embedded inside an egg. He'd chuck it in a sandwich, so same diff.

Naruto leaned on one elbow and watched Yasha work, his mind feeling a bit hazy. He was a bit tired, truth be told, but he was too buzzed about his graduation to think about it.

He had been working hard for three months – so busy pranking was limited to once a month, much to Konoha's relief. The time seemed to just _fly_ by and he'd gone to bed mentally exhausted lots of that time. His brain ached a lot, a sort of tingling in his head.

But now it was gonna be a cinch. He'll bet Kiba fifty ryou he'd pass with a higher grade than him. Kiba hadn't bothered studying, Naruto knew him too well. He threw a good punch, though, and could down-talk people pretty well, which Yasha found funny.

"Everybody wants a silly tutu, yours is pink but mine is blue," Yasha sang, slapping the fry-up onto some bread.

Naruto blinked and started giggling, gaining a triumphant smile from Yasha. The grin froze on Naruto's face as he took in the genuine happiness behind Yasha's smile and how homely the scene felt. '_Almost like Yasha is my…'_

The Uzumaki dropped his head to hide his sorrow and quickly slapped a grin back onto his face as he looked back up. Yasha was frowning at him now, and the blond recognised that disapproving, analysing look. "Don't be a doofus and hide your feelings."

Naruto flinched, but the other boy just sighed. "If you don't have a family, your friends step in for you. I'll be there to congratulate you and take you home when you get your headband."

"What about Ino? Won't she be all…" Naruto asked hesitantly.

"Screw Ino!" Yasha dismissed empathically with a wave of his hand. "You're my closest friend, Naruto. Ino isn't a part of this equation." He drew a line in the air between the two as he ended it.

Naruto's eyes began to water as Yasha unceremoniously dumped the meal onto a plate in front of him, turning back to the stove to make his own.

"Stop hugging me and eat your shit!" came the brunette's yelp, scaring a few nearby birds.

* * *

"Next, Uzumaki Naruto."

"Hai!" Naruto strutted into the classroom proudly, unable to stop grinning.

Mizuki fixed him with an analysing look, while Iruka nodded at him, picking up a paper. "Okay, Naruto-kun. Firstly, you've improved drastically recently. You were almost a dud on written exams, but now you are performing near the top level-"

"Near Sasuke?!" Naruto interrupted quickly.

"Um, yes," Iruka confirmed.

Naruto felt a bit shocked. Yasha had made _that much_ difference? "How has Yasha done?"

Iruka shuffled the papers, pulling up Yasha's scores. "He's made near-perfect scores. Higher than you, but only slightly. However, since he had a late entry, his score had to be extrapolated, giving him a high pass. Taijutsu is obviously included in your final grade, and when he _tries_, he excels in those. Your um, handicap," Iruka coughed as he mentioned Naruto's earlier illiteracy, "…has been taken into account, so I've stretched your grade up a little – however, due to the fact you hid the handicap for no reason, the difference is a low pass."

Mizuki smiled wanly. "We've been giving out all three E-Rank jutsu by random shuffling, the basic academy ones. What's his first one?" he glanced at Iruka.

"It is… Bunshin."

Naruto blinked, and the smile slipped off his face. It felt like a boulder had smacked into him.

Bunshin. Damn it, he'd practised taijutsu, shuriken, knots, knife fights, ropes, traps, strategy, even Kawarimi and Henge, and they wanted _Bunshin_.

He'd forgotten all about it. Yasha probably had too, since they trained jutsu together. "Has Yasha been tested on Bunshin?" he couldn't help asking.

Iruka frowned. "He hasn't taken the final jutsu test yet. But if you can't do an E-Rank, performing a higher-level technique is fine too – it's how Hinata passed. Yasha has his bloodline techniques, which are notably powerful, so that's why he's going to be tested last."

Naruto's face fell further. He lowered his head for a couple of seconds, racking his brains desperately.

Nothing. He didn't have D-Rank. The only ones he'd _seen_ was only that dead-friend genjutsu, and he was awful at that. So awful that woman couldn't teach him.

He pulled his face back up with a pleading smile. "Can't I do another one? I'm good at Henge."

Iruka gave him the apologetic look. "The scenario on the field could call for Bunshin, and you need to be able to do whatever a scenario calls for."

Mizuki smiled. "But you can show us the other two. It's three E-Ranks or a D-Rank."

Naruto pulled off Henge with less chakra wastage than normal, albeit still a lot, and likewise Kawarimi, but by the end he was almost in tears. Iruka looked particularly troubled by it.

"But if I don't pass, Yasha will fail too! He promised!" Naruto pleaded.

Iruka shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, but that is the rules. You can redo it next year… with Yasha, if he chooses to make good on his promise. Flying colours, right?"

"But it's not the _same!"_ Naruto snapped. With a sob he ran off, rubbing at his eyes furiously as he ran past the remainder of his queuing classmates.

Yasha watched with a frown. Shikamaru gave him and Naruto analysing looks, but even the Nara had difficulty trying to work out what was behind Yasha's frown. There was still a good five people to go after Naruto left.

It was highly convenient that they left him last – it meant Mizuki was only free to trick Naruto right after Yasha was done with the test. It made sense; his bloodlines gave a ton of KI which would upset the kids and parents – although Yasha thankfully hadn't told them he learnt KI-less genjutsu.

Naruto looked like someone has just crushed his heart into pieces._ 'Oh man, imagine what would happen if I turned on him right now? The damn Kyuubi release would happen.'_

His dreams were crushed and Yasha would be highly shocked if Naruto could mentally cope with his only close friend betraying him. This was trauma already, a second dose so soon would… _destroy_ him.

The thought didn't give Yasha much pleasure. In fact, he was still frowning when it was his turn.

"Your jutsu is… Kawarimi."

Yasha performed it effortlessly, but the small but potent KI release made both teachers reel.

Iruka blinked away the flashbacks to the last time he made Yasha angry. "Your written scores are high, I've been informed your chakra control is perfect, you can use killing intent, and you've managed to bring someone else up to high level. That grants you a high pass."

"Oh, I can use D-Rank genjutsu too." Yasha smiled, flicking through the seals. Before Mizuki could react, he was ensnared.

Iruka blinked as Mizuki squealed, slapping his hands into Kai.

"That was a perfect D-Rank, although a little more warning would be nice," Mizuki growled through clenched teeth.

"But The Scenario might not give you time to react." Yasha smirked.

Iruka rolled his eyes as Yasha used their words against them, making some notes. "D-Ranks are another booster, how many do you know?"

"I know one… two D-Ranks? Maybe more. I also have disintegration techniques that release killing intent so strong half of Konoha can feel it."

Mizuki blinked and looked interested.

"I… see," Iruka said slowly. "It's a very high pass, then. You would… um…"

"It's an A-Rank with that radius," Mizuki confirmed with a slightly twisted grin, "So I think he beats Sasuke."

"Some cursed bloodlines are better than others." Yasha smirked, watching them both blink and give weak smiles at his mention of the tragedy of a month ago.

If only they knew he had saved some of the Uchiha kiddies.

"Well, at any rate, you pass. Sign in these three places."

Yasha read the forms (which perturbed Iruka a bit, no one else had) and signed them.

"Congratulations." Iruka smiled warmly, passing him a headband.

Mizuki looked a bit bored by the end. "Iruka-san, I have a meeting with someone, would you mind…?"

"Fine, but next year, the paperwork's on you…" Iruka was replying dryly as Yasha left.

The pony-tailed chuunin frowned after Yasha had gone. "I wonder if Yasha will turn back in the headband when he finds out Naruto failed."

Mizuki shrugged. "I doubt it. He seems like the type to grab any sort of power he can."

* * *

Yasha crept around Naruto's vision until a tree blocked the blond's view of him, then he ran quietly towards it, beginning to climb, about ten feet from the swing Naruto was moping on. He'd have to balance and hide properly or it'd be ruined.

Heart thumping, he climbed upwards into the thick branches, waiting silently. He was still surprised when it actually _worked_ and Mizuki didn't notice him. As the chuunin paused by Naruto, Yasha fired his strong mental connection, hiding his thoughts but now hearing every thought and emotion Mizuki had.

Orochimaru apparently wanted the Kyuubi to go wild, hopefully a betrayal would set him off. If it worked, Konoha would suffer. Mizuki had hoped to get Naruto feeling even worse, so he'd advised Iruka not to comment on Naruto's failing to Yasha.

That way Yasha would talk to him as if he'd passed (as if the brunette wasn't observant enough to notice the moping), causing even more trauma from letting down his friend.

Yasha scowled. _'The bastard.'_

As Mizuki lulled the blond into false hope, Yasha listened very closely, until Mizuki said the location. A forest near the outskirts – clever. No one would think to look for the prankster there; they'd be too busy searching closer to home. Naruto had always ran around in Konoha during his pranks' escapes.

Yasha memorised the location and watched as Naruto sped off, red-rimmed eyes shining with hope, and Mizuki watched with a smug grin before starting his jump towards the Hokage Tower.

Yasha disconnected, feeling a bit bleary. His consciousness, while returning, had filtered through the tree's branches and leaves. It was an odd sensation.

Everything resumed mental normalcy after a minute or two, and Yasha sped home at rocket pace, stopping just shy of KI releasing. He would need some _very_ fast writing; good thing his chakra control exercises had led to some excellent hand-eye coordination.

He had time, Mizuki had to set up holes in the Tower security for Naruto, but Yasha was excited. He could potentially get S-Rank jutsu out of this – who knew what the scroll contained?!

The dark-haired boy grabbed two blank scrolls and two pens, tossing them into a small black rucksack, and sped off again. The hour or so until the alarm was raised was his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. _Literally_, once-in-a-lifetime. If he missed out, Shadow Clone would probably never be taught to him until he made high chuunin – at best.

Naruto could blast his way through testing Kage Bunshin using Jinchūriki-level wastage of chakra, but Yasha didn't have that luxury, and he didn't think he had the chakra stores to even test it _once_ in the forest.

* * *

Yasha arrived at the meeting spot, in the trees, very ready. He had planned this for a considerable time.

He was wrapped up in dark clothing under a bush. He always wore dark clothing, but for good measure he had blackened his face with dirt and had a hoodie with his hood up. He had forgone gloves, not knowing if his sleep genjutsu would be ruined by the material.

Mizuki had thankfully dumbed down the instructions to get to the spot to the point ex-illiterate Naruto could find his way here, so Yasha had no problems. He was a good distance away, and had a bush held up in one hand – a knife he brought had been used to chisel it out of the ground. The knife would serve as protection, if it came to that, but Yasha doubted it.

But his heart kept hammering and the worry that he was at the wrong place _would not leave_.

Once the alarms went off distantly, his sweating and worrying only got worse. He didn't risk taking off his hoodie, so he just sweated, grateful none of the three people involved tonight had a keen sense of smell.

When he finally spotted Naruto, he sighed in relief, before immediately hiding behind the tree. He had to sneak up, and although he calculated angles beforehand…

Naruto paced, silently whooping, before he dumped the scroll on the ground, and it unravelled. Remembering what Iruka said about D-Ranks, he grinned, sitting down to study it, not noticing an oddly moving bush in the corner of his eye.

Yasha crept up as silently as he could, making the knockout seals.

Five feet.

Two feet.

He rounded the trunk, putting his hand against Naruto's slightly damp forehead, and the blond gasped, slumping forward.

Yasha quickly checked him over – sleeping, good, that gasp had scared him – and he smiled triumphantly. He took the scroll a good distance away, unravelling it, pulling out a flat wooden board to lean on, uncorking the ink and frowning, as both hands twitched in readiness.

If Mizuki came along, Yasha had to stay hidden. If he killed Mizuki, _Yasha_ would look like the planner behind the scroll, and Orochimaru would never be known of. If Yasha was spotted and ran from Mizuki, the traitor would be more than happy to share that he was there, and a Yamanaka trip would verify it.

With Yamanaka, having one witness was more than enough.

Yasha was at a distance and a position where he'd see Mizuki, but Mizuki would have difficulty seeing him – he'd cooped behind a bush like a net-curtain.

Still, a white scroll stood out in a darkening forest, so Yasha began to copy, furiously and carefully.

* * *

Naruto grumbled blearily, waking up. He blinked down at the scroll in shock. "What the hell, dattebayo? I fell asleep? _Now_, of all times, dattebayo?!"

Yasha smirked from his viewpoint. The next part would involve Naruto being chased. He'd moved to a right-angle from Naruto's entrance direction… so if Mizuki chased him the right way, he could flank him.

He'd copied the whole scroll, so quickly the kanji and drawings had become meaningless. He didn't give himself the luxury of understanding; just copied every stroke and symbol like reproducing a giant sketch, rather than copying the text.

In total, it took him nearly half an hour. His knockout for Naruto had been an estimate, but thankfully, for once is his Kami-damned life, things were working his way.

Unlike frickin' Ino. That blackmail material was still valid even if he'd given her a good reason not to use it. If she used the free time today to investigate…

Yasha shook his head, wincing as his hand cramped. He probably should've switched hands midway, but his left hand was not _quite_ on the level of accuracy of his right, and Yasha didn't want the slightest mistake.

He couldn't recall the scroll coherently. His brain was whirring, on adrenaline, throbbing pain, alertness, and the sheer volume of white paper it had scrutinised. Yasha was fairly certain his subconscious was attempting to process the mess of writing that it had just seen, but right now, Yasha just wanted to go to bed.

But he had to find out about the Kyuubi, and overhear it. A word-for-word quote of what Mizuki had said would suffice as an excuse for knowing about the Kyuubi.

He didn't 100% _need_ to have an alibi for finding out about the Kyuubi today, but there was something poetic about the day Naruto finds out, his friend did as well. No Yamanaka would be jumping into his mind to confirm it, though. Swarm Protections Enabled and all that jazz.

He also had to double-check that Naruto's limited time would still suffice, or the blond may very well die.

Incoming… oh shit, Iruka was passing right over him.

Yasha cringed. Iruka had that chakra pulse thing… maybe he would detect…

"NARUTO!"

Yasha worked out Iruka wasn't using it, though. It was just Naruto releasing a shedload of chakra in his attempts at (or successful) Kage Bunshin. Yasha hadn't been looking for whether Naruto was successful, but it was fairly obvious that Naruto would be a beacon to any chakra sensor with his attempts. Thank Kami, because there was a good chance Iruka would've found Yasha otherwise.

That was probably why ANBU hadn't turned up. They wouldn't head to somewhere that had a beacon – what thief in their right mind would make a beacon?

They probably looked for a certain signal in the pulses to detect if it was SOS or something… a spasmodic chakra beacon wouldn't take much priority in an emergency. Although it should, being it was Naruto's chakra that was making the beacon.

Maybe something else was going on with the ANBU? Did Mizuki distract them?

And there came Mizuki, looking rather harried. Yasha looked back over at Naruto and Iruka, and frowned. He wasn't sure if Naruto had learnt Kage Bunshin in his more limited time, even with his increased literacy skills.

Then Mizuki struck.

Ouch. Surely a chuunin who had time to bear his back like that would have time to knock it away. It was a _giant_ shuriken, a good well-timed kick or pr0 d0dge would've fixed that.

Why was Iruka even a chuunin?

Ah, Naruto just ran for it. Yasha stood back up and cursed as pins and needles shot up his legs. He'd been squatting too long. He staggered, rustling the bushes rather noisily, and decided to wait until he wasn't going to sound like a rampaging elephant in his 'stealthy shadowing'.

The copied scroll was well and truly taped to his chest, under his clothing, so he didn't have to worry about them falling loose. It was actually very uncomfortable to wear, but he was using a large amount of duct tape, and he'd much rather have it like this than bouncing around noisily as he ran.

He had lost sight of Naruto, the half a minute of trying to reboot his legs ruined it. So much for everything going his way.

Yasha took off along the ground, using a quick Henge to lower his weight. With the swarms providing him night vision for the setting sun, he didn't really need to worry about tripping.

He set his velocity so he'd catch up with his blond housemate if for some reason he opted to stick to one direction and his normal speed. There was a very high chance he'd miss Naruto entirely, but…

After about seven minutes of running Yasha concluded he had lost Naruto. Completely.

The dark-haired boy frowned. He was in a forest, surrounded by flesh-less insects and leaves. Surely his swarms would be collecting where the two chuunin were throwing KI at each other?

Still, that didn't mean _he_ knew where the swarms were. He tutted. At least he didn't have to worry about direction, he knew the way back to the meeting place from here.

Yasha stood there for a couple of minutes, attempting to feel any changes in his environment. Any sort of chakra or KI or noise or anything.

Swearing again at the lack of feedback, he backtracked, this time heading to where he last saw Mizuki. Even if he ran into the evil chuunin on his own, Yasha was fairly confident he'd come out alive. His Henge was very quick, and he could KI Mizuki to unconsciousness and/or use KI as an ANBU beacon, if it came to that. Plus, Mizuki wouldn't have any reason to attack him on sight. And then he could always self-heal.

The scenario made Yasha kind of aware of just how overpowered he really was. If it wasn't for chakra exhaustion being instant death instead of knockout, he would be pretty invincible. Knock Yasha unconscious or kill him and the swarms would eat your face off; leave him injured and he'd get the swarms to regenerate him. Genjutsu would fail outright and you could forget being serious about killing him at all unless you had jounin KI tolerance.

Yasha was also aware he was very clever. Plus he could read minds, given some focus.

Still, his aim with weapons was not so brilliant, taijutsu was genin at best, and his repertoire of ninjutsu was highly limited.

To be honest, he was very curious how Mizuki would play it out. If he started mentioning Yasha as in, 'Yasha will reject you if he knew who you really are', then the brunette would counter it by admitting he always knew. However, if Mizuki said 'Yasha only likes you because he's a demon too', Yasha admitting he knew of the Kyuubi later would have an _adverse_ effect on Naruto.

The wording was important. When manipulating, knowledge was key. A single fact can be all that's needed to reverse a scene from someone being hostile to friendly and vice versa.

Yasha heard a thumping sound and he changed direction, hastily cancelling his lightweight Henge as he realised he was closer than he thought.

Adrenaline pumping and blood pounding in his ears, he scanned the washed-out forest in front of him. Then he saw Naruto, sat with the giant scroll in front of him, looking around the side of the tree at the two chuunin, who were having a chat, with their kunai doing most of the talking.

Although his front was facing Yasha, Naruto's head was to the side, his attention on the two chuunin behind him.

Yasha moved closer, straining his ears.

"…defend that monster? Have you really forgotten who killed your parents?"

"My parents were killed by the Kyuubi!" Iruka shouted back.

"Exactly! You're a fool, Iruka! Naruto is the Kyuubi in human guise!"

Yasha was getting gradually closer. Ten feet from Naruto now – time to hide. His hand throbbing and heart pumping in his ears, he listened closely, unaware than the Third Hokage just sat up straight in shock, watching as Yasha's hooded figure stepped behind a tree trunk in the crystal ball. "Who's that?" the man muttered, wondering if he had better send ANBU after all.

(The crystal couldn't track Yasha, distinct as his chakra may have been. There was no chakra exposed for the crystal to latch onto; the swarms hid it. The Hokage had attempted it a couple of times before.)

Iruka appeared to have lost the match, blood loss if anything. He slumped with his back to a tree trunk, mustering up strength to protest again. "He's not the Kyuubi. He's a mischievous student who I have nothing but respect for, the number one knucklehead idiot ninja, and a member of Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Don't insult my minions," Yasha muttered with a frown, watching Naruto start getting teary. As Mizuki went to strike the killing blow, Naruto dived toward, rescuing Iruka's why-is-he-chuunin butt, Yasha ducked under a bush, ready to dive forward if it turned out.

_'Kami, I'm tired.'_ Yasha yawned. _'Action scene and all I can think about is my nice bed at home. Fucking Etsuko being all noisy at 4am. If she didn't look adorable when she slept, I'd probably have killed her by now, the little demon.'_

Yasha watched as Mizuki and Naruto faced off. The blond was trying his most menacing look. "Don't touch Iruka-sensei! I'll kill you!"

The Death Release user's eyes widened. _'Would he kill…? No…'_

Naruto used the seal, Yasha watching carefully.

_"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"_

"Holy shit!" Yasha stuck his head down as **_far too many_** Narutos appeared around him, trying to merge with the grass and failing considerably. _'Hell, one is too many.'_

* * *

"Sakura…"

"Ino?" Sakura turned, reshuffling her shopping and bit back the instinctive defensive retort. Her friend looked… dazed. Sakura hastily switched to concerned. "What's up?"

"I… I'm done with Sasuke. I'm sorry."

Sakura blinked once… twice. Then it felt like a weight fell on top of her. "WHAT?!"

"Ow." Ino's dazed look had faded a little as she took her hands off her ears. "I had a talk with Yasha, and I realised it's unfair to you for this rivalry to carry on when I'm not interested in Sasuke anymore."

"You've picked Yasha," Sakura repeated slowly. Some part of her thought it was a trick, but Ino wouldn't stoop so low. It was out of character.

"Yep," Ino stated with some finality in her tone. "And I, er… I want things to go back to how they used to be."

"_Now?_ We just graduated!" Sakura pointed out angrily. "We won't see anything of each other on our missions!"

"Yes, now." Ino looked apologetic. "I only talked with Yasha-kun yesterday, so…" she added, scratching the back of her head and gazing off into the distance. "And after school we… well, he…"

If Ino's glazed-over look didn't make it obvious to Sakura, the furious blushing did. Sakura gaped. "No. Way. Your first kiss was…"

Ino looked down and hid her burning face behind her hands. "Yesterday. Yep."

Sakura stepped forward in shock, trying to pick up her muffled voice. "With _Yasha?!" _

"He was… amazing," Ino mumbled, awe in her tone.

"Oh _Kami_," Sakura breathed, grabbing her _ex?_-friend's shoulder and nearly dropping the shopping. "Come over to my place. I gotta hear all about this."

Ino let herself be dragged away, her pink haired classmate whispering questions in shocked tones.

* * *

Fortunately all the chakra smoke and Naruto's single-minded fixation on pummelling Mizuki seemed to blind him to the small dark figure under one of the bushes. (That, and Naruto wasn't exactly observant. Hell, Yasha had snuck up on him _twice_ tonight.)

"Maybe I went overboard," Naruto laughed sheepishly, scratching his head. Then he realised his bleeding teacher was still injured and went over to him. "Iruka-sensei, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Come here, Naruto, I have something for you."

Yasha smirked at Naruto's flabbergasted expression as he felt Iruka's forehead protector on his own forehead. He held up a make-believe camera and snapped a shot.

"Congratulations. You pass."

_'Now I can come out, or leave it… best come out.'_ Yasha stood up, hopping onto the branches nearby.

Iruka frowned, hearing the rustling. "Who's that?"

Yasha hopped down. "What's up, guys? I was out for a stroll and heard the commotion." He gazed over at Naruto who dropped his head numbly, remembering why he was avoiding Yasha. Then his gaze turned to Iruka who was too drained to do anything but blink back at him, then Yasha turned back to pummelled Mizuki, whom he gazed at for a couple of seconds then shrugged at dismissively.

Yasha tapped his protector, smirking at the blond idiot. "You didn't come home, so I didn't get to show off my protector."

"I failed the graduation exam, dattebayo!" Naruto blurted hurriedly.

"What? By not doing a Bunshin? I thought I saw more than one of you earlier." Yasha grinned.

Naruto blinked in realisation, looking back at Iruka, who smiled back in confirmation. The blond scratched his head as he worked out what that meant, then a thought hit him, cutting off his elated grin. He fixed his gaze onto Yasha. "Wait, were you there? When Mizuki talked about the… fox?"

"What fox?" Yasha blinked, looking around on the ground in confusion as if looking for a real fox. "I only just turned up."

Naruto looked at him, trying to read the manipulator, then he shut his mouth quickly and his gaze dropped his eyes to the ground again. He wasn't sure if he wanted to Yasha to know.

"Let's go home, Naruto." Yasha grinned cheerfully, holding out his hand.

The Jinchūriki looked up. "Yeah," he murmured, gazing at him with an distant expression that made Yasha realise he was committing that moment to memory.

The brunette kept his gentle smile, enforcing the picturesque memory. "I knew you would pass."

"Would you really have dropped out if I hadn't?" Naruto asked quietly.

"A promise is a promise, baka."

Yasha actually would have. On the off chance Naruto failed graduation, the entire future was screwed up, and he didn't want to risk his friendship/protection offered by a Jinchūriki… well, Itachi did ask him to watch Sasuke, though… and hold on, he needed the genin pay for the Uchiha kids… if for some reason he had to drag out and he couldn't throw them into the orphanages, which could only really happen within a week after graduation day.

Maybe he wouldn't have? Well, there was reasons to go either way, but he wouldn't break a promise. It was one thing to lie, and another thing to lie against a promise. Then you might as well throw away every ounce of your reliability and worth of giving your word; as a manipulator, you're done if you can't assure people of your basic motive. And for that you needed predictably honest moments.

His funds were running low. He hadn't counted it recently, but he knew he couldn't sponsor the kids much longer. They ate up food like little vacuums, despite their young age. Not to mention replacing toys, books, clothes, and the rent.

You anticipated ten thousand ryou per week? Just double it! And then double it again, because you can't predict how much kids cost, you idiot. You wonder why parents looked stressed? No sleep, extra expenses, and the unpredictability of the new arrival.

At that point, the ANBU finally joined the scene, a lion-masked man landing nearby. He took one look at Yasha and sighed, his shoulders slumping like he was suddenly exhausted, much to the brunette's confusion. "Iruka-san, do you need assistance?" the ANBU asked tiredly.

Yasha was taken aback by the martyrdom of the ANBU. _'What have I ever done to __**you?!'**_

"Some medical help would be… nice," Iruka agreed.

The Lion ANBU nodded. "I'll treat you here. You two boys, get on home."

Yasha nodded. "You heard the woman. Let's go."

As they moved out the clearing, a shuriken accidentally slipped out of Lion's pouch and somehow propelled itself into a tree across the clearing, skipping past a centimetre away from Yasha's nose. Tsk, he really needed to work on his randomly flying weapons. Most unprofessional.

"Maybe we'll be on the same team, Naruto!" Yasha commented by way of distraction as they left the clearing.

"You mean we might not, dattebayo?!"

* * *

As the two neared their home, they met Kurenai. "Yasha-kun, I understand you graduated?"

"Hai. Flying colours and all that jazz." Yasha waved Naruto onward. "You go on to Ichiraku, Naruto."

"I'm not too surprised." Kurenai smiled at the brunette as the blond whooped, running onwards to the stall. "What's with all the dirt on your face?"

Yasha blinked, having completely forgotten it in the excitement. Maybe that was a good thing. "I was out for a stroll. You know how it is."

Kurenai tilted her head. "Did that have anything to do with the alert that just ended?"

Yasha hummed thoughtfully, looking innocent. "Indirectly, perhaps."

"_Righttttt…_" she dragged out, completely unconvinced. She smiled, throwing him a scroll. "Well, anyway, I couldn't find you today, for obvious reasons, but I wanted to teach you one last thing as a sort of leaving gift."

"This is…?" Yasha pored over it hungrily, trying not to disturb the scroll wrapped around his chest.

"It's the theory behind casting a person-based genjutsu onto multiple targets. I anticipated I wouldn't be able to find you before night, so I wrote it myself."

"Thanks, Kurenai-san!" Yasha grinned, giving her a hug.

She pushed him away after about half a second. "Yeah, yeah, get on with you."

"Why don't _I_ get a hug?" came a mopey voice from behind her.

"Asuma-kun, _shush_," Kurenai shot her ex-classmate down, then blinked at him in realisation. "Have you been following me again?"

"I don't _follow_ you," Asuma stressed. "I do tactical observation."

"Oh, that's good, I'll use that one," Yasha noted thoughtfully.

Asuma realised Yasha was present and frowned at him. "Don't plagiarise me."

"I don't _plagiarise_ you," the dark-haired boy echoed. "I do tactical observation."

"Tactical observation that sets off alerts?" Asuma deduced.

"Perhaps… at any rate, I have to go, there was an ANBU throwing weapons at me earlier." Yasha smiled, stepping away and breaking into a jog after Naruto. He smirked as he felt the two jounin's stares on his back, both mentally debating whether he was telling the truth or not.

Pulling open the scroll, he grinned. It was just as Kurenai had said, instructions written clearly, almost looking copied from somewhere else. That looked like she had an excellent memory – he made another mental boost to how clever she was.

It looked like about five minutes reading, so that was fine. He could read that before he went over the copies of the forbidden scroll. He was planning to shove as much of that in his head as possible, as quickly as possible, so if things ever went south, he'd have more options; and it meant he minimised the chance of the scrolls being found.

Although, he doubted he would feel safe using a forbidden technique after a few years of not having viewed the scroll. His memory wasn't perfect, after all.

"Yasha-kun!" Naruto waved him over.

"You finished five bowls already?" Yasha realised in disbelief.

"Mm!" the blond responded enthusiastically.

The brunette slid into the seat beside the blond, giving Teuchi a greeting smile. His head was full of plotting: working out what he knew about graduation, what he knew about the scroll, and calculating rent after the meal.

Naruto slurped down more ramen, his head showing him the memory of Yasha telling him to come home with a smile, over and over. He couldn't stop the beaming smile on his face.

* * *

"Your students will be most youthful this year! You must let them pass!"

"Yes, Gai, whatever you say Gai," Kakashi muttered, nose stuck safely in Icha Icha.

"Do you know who you're going to get, my youthful friend?"

_'I imagine the council will throw Sasuke on me. Sharingan to train Sharingan,'_ Kakashi thought to himself without a _drop_ of enthusiasm. That kid was the talk of the town, which couldn't be good for sensei or student.

What was worse, Kakashi had worked with the Uchiha's brother before he went homicidal, and that'd overshadow him the entire time Kakashi had to deal with him.

"I'll test them the same way I always do, and if they fail, they fail, and I get a year of solo Jounin missions."

"Is that what you truly want?" Gai asked, his own youthfulness quieted for a while.

Kakashi shrugged. "I'm fine with it."

"Then you lack youth! YOSH! You must join me for a hundred laps around Konoha!" And Gai took off, with a cloud of dust trailing him.

Kakashi rolled his eyes and switched directions, heading home. He wanted a quiet night before he had to deal with Itachi Junior and two other snot-nosed brats. Hopefully he could just fail Sasuke outright for the standard Uchiha arrogance.

Then he'd have a year of freedom from the responsibility of caring for others. His ANBU teammates couldn't even talk to him out of the field, and they couldn't discuss missions anywhere. His old genin team was all dead, two of them his fault. Itachi had gone insane, Yūrei some sort of traitor or insane as well… thank Kami he had some friends who he didn't have responsibility for.

If Gai ever went insane, no one would notice. If he left the village, Kakashi doubted anyone would want to bring him back.

He snorted, a reluctant smile on his face as he headed home.

* * *

**AN:** Next chapter is the team assignment! Woo! I've written most of it a few months ago.

Would _you_ want Gai back if he left?


	32. Test of loyalty

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 32: Test of loyalty_**

* * *

**AN: **Last time: Itachi is hesitantly admitted into Akatsuki. Yūrei _(unwittingly?)_ trolls ANBU following him via his favourite shadow clone jutsu.

Ino gets lucky, and she's not ready for it. Yasha passes genin exam, Naruto fails; Mizuki does his thing, Yasha steals the Scroll of Sealing and copies it down, KO'ng Naruto to do so. He makes it apparent he was there, but not that he knows of the Kyuubi.

This time: The genin assignments and genin test begins. Who will be Yasha's team? Will he get an apprenticeship or some weirdness?

If you recall, the Hokage has an anti-suspicion-of-Yasha genjutsu on him from Yūrei. However, even if he is no longer distrusting the kid, the Hokage knows Yasha's a manipulator. Whether you're an anti-hero or a villain, no one likes finding out you're manipulating their kid.

Plus, the Hokage knows everyone will by default not like Yasha, even if the Hokage himself is fine with him at that point. So it's still complicated to put him on a team that will accept him.

* * *

The Hokage frowned, list of genin in front of him. And the name that cursed him: Yasha.

Clan-less, manipulative, and deadly. No matter who he teamed Yasha with, he risked them just another two victims of his manipulation.

How far could the manipulation go? That depended on how intelligent the person was.

Ino was a first choice, because a chat about manipulation would wise her up to his ways. But pairing with Ino was out, definitely. Inoichi was already complaining from the contact she had currently, and with her desire for a boyfriend, the situation was already critical. Rumour had it she was even claiming Yasha was her boyfriend.

In fact, pairing Yasha with any clan kid will probably have the clan head complaining against him, and possibly have their kid and thus their clan under Yasha (to an extent, a boy couldn't control _everything_).

Hiruzen could pair him with two low-level civilian genin, to reduce the fallout, but Yasha was a prodigy. That would create a team depending on Yasha so strongly, the other two genin would die rather quickly; a jounin and a high-level genin couldn't protect two so far under their level forever. It wouldn't be a team because the two would be all but useless to Yasha. There'd be no attachment at all made by Yasha to them, and thus none to Konoha.

Well, what did Hiruzen know he _had_ to do with the team arrangements?

Kakashi had to have Sasuke, thanks to the council and media attention. And it would be only right to give him his sensei's son Naruto as well. And with how attached Naruto was to Yasha… and they lived together…

The Hokage grimaced as he wrote three names in quick succession. This was an arrangement that defied tradition, that was either going to cripple or strengthen Konoha. Kakashi would need a full briefing before he even met his team.

* * *

"Team 7: Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto…"

Sasuke flinched while Naruto yelled out, "What?!"

Iruka didn't even blink. "…and Yasha."

"Yatta!" Naruto shot his fist into the air and stood up abruptly.

Iruka gazed at him as Naruto's triumphant look faded to indignation. The blond stood, pointing angrily at Sasuke. "I know Yasha's cool, but why does someone like me have to be on a team with _this_ loser?!"

Iruka sighed defeatedly, answering robotically. "Naruto, the teams are balanced; you did the worst out of the class. Sasuke, by contrast, has the best scores."

Laughter burst out around the class, making Naruto scowl vehemently as he sat back down with a thump. Yasha snored gently beside him, having apparently slept through the whole team assignment speech.

"He's asleep?" Sasuke asked, blinking at himself as the words slipped out unbidden.

He had considering saying something along the lines of not needing a team, but Yasha's presence was a definite plus that he needed, even if just until Sasuke got his secrets out of him. It made Sasuke kind of excited – he had full ability to spar with the elusive and dangerous-feeling classmate if he was on a team with him.

Naruto gazed at him perturbed, and shrugged, grateful Sasuke hadn't joined in with the class's mockery. "He was busy studying a jutsu scroll and he was up late."

"Hm." Sasuke turned back, a slight frown creasing his features. Yasha was still an enigma. Using Iruka's logic, it was apparent Yasha had been average, to balance their team. _'But…'_ Sasuke glanced at the silently sleeping Yasha, _'…why is he __**still**__ scary, even when he's asleep?!'_

An even slighter smile twitched on his lips. _'Yep, being with Yasha will be just fine. He can make me stronger.'_

His thoughts turned to Naruto. The blond had gone from complete dead-last to far better. Since Yasha had turned up, Sasuke had seen him with Naruto quite a few times, but no one else was normally around the Uzumaki – and he had overheard rumours Yasha and Naruto were living in the same building. At any rate, Yasha's tutelage had been the cause of Naruto's vast improvement, Sasuke was sure of it.

Naruto was by no means a genius now, and his tests pre-Yasha's arrival would drag his ending grade down… but Sasuke had seen the difference first-hand over the month. Naruto was much less sloppy in the spars. His stances were better, his hits were more precise, and the holes in his defences were much smaller, albeit still inadequately large. His academic performance had gone from failing every question and goofing off to being right more often than not, although there was still a lot he was wrong on. He was more attentive as well, although he still pranked all the time and shouted out things for emphasis.

Yasha was so good at covering up his skill levels Sasuke still wasn't sure what his capacity was. Questions that were easy were answered wrong (occasionally), hard ones could be answered correctly or blown off with a snide comment. Yasha didn't appear to mind if he got detention, and most times he did, Naruto would misbehave until he was invited to detention too.

At random points during spars with other people, Yasha would just stop and say something like 'ouch, stomach pains' and wander off to the toilet looking vaguely agonised. During fights he would regard the opponent with a level of apathy Sasuke once imagined he was That Man. Even when he was getting pummelled, Yasha looked, at worst, mildly inconvenienced, like he was detached from his pain and was patiently waiting for the opponent to call the match. Sasuke wasn't sure if Yasha took _any_ spar seriously, if he predicted his win and dropped out, if he knew he was going to lose, or _what_ he was doing.

It was frustrating, to say the least, not knowing why his own instincts warned Sasuke away. Even when Yasha was asleep, when laughing cheerfully, when doing a prank, when reading, _anything_ – he gave off a _warning_ and if Sasuke stared at him too much, his skin began to crawl, and it wasn't from the protective glares Naruto shot him.

Sasuke had only sparred twice with the Uchiha lookalike. The first time, Yasha had looked so bored it was no surprise his blocks and hits were half-hearted. He was defeated in about a minute, although Sasuke made sure to tell him that if Yasha pulled his punches again, he would pummel him; he didn't want to fight Yasha _casually_.

The second time, Yasha looked very tired, and although Sasuke could tell Yasha was putting much more effort into it, the Uchiha still got the impression Yasha was holding back something, and his sluggishness ruined it for Sasuke anyway.

Being the spars were ninjutsu/genjutsu free and no weapons, the holding back could be anything. From what Yasha had demonstrated, his taijutsu style was unique, but undeveloped. It was undoubtedly fluid, though; the number of times he had got a hit into Sasuke was higher than any other spar the Uchiha had been in.

Sasuke had also seen times Naruto had used the same taijutsu style, weaving around his opponent and ignoring the opportunities to hit them until his opponent let down their guard.

And if Yasha could improve Naruto that much so quickly, what would happen if he kept on improving? The team had potential. He didn't _need_ them, definitely not, he was an Uchiha… but the potential was obvious when it came to being able to improve each other. Sasuke wanted Yasha's hidden abilities, Naruto was already benefitting from Yasha, and Sasuke could work on Yasha's taijutsu as a trade.

Naruto didn't have anything to offer Sasuke, though. His academics were still worthless by comparison, and his taijutsu still way below. His chakra control was poor and he couldn't pull off regular Bunshin, so there was no chance of him knowing any decent ninjutsu or genjutsu.

Still, Sasuke would have to tolerate him, or else Yasha could just refuse to work with Sasuke, and that scariness and confidence Yasha had would stay out of his reach.

By now, all the teams had left, their individual sensei noted and filed away by Sasuke as a background thought. Might be useful to know later.

There were just three people remaining. One was asleep, one looked impatient and the other was Sasuke.

* * *

By the time an hour had passed, both still-awake boys were fuming at their sensei. Yasha was snoozing quietly. Naruto opted for no honorific for lack of wanting to add 'teme' in a request. "Sasuke, do you know who the sensei is?"

Sasuke tsk'd. He supposed he had to answer the dobe. "Iruka said it's 'Hatake Kakashi'. I don't know him, but I already don't like him."

"Maybe he's… on a mission?" Naruto tried carefully.

_'How dumb is this dobe?'_ Sasuke wondered. "No. The Hokage would have informed Iruka."

"Oh yeah," Naruto realised. He folded his arms, slumping onto the table. "This sucks. I might as well go to sleep too."

"I'm not going to be your alarm clock, dobe."

"I didn't ask, teme," Naruto returned. His glare softened as he glanced at the sleeping Yasha. He had accepted him without question, just like he had befriended him without any strings attached. Naruto wouldn't be surprised if Yasha had heard Mizuki talking about the Kyuubi yesterday. It was so _like_ him to hide things like that.

Another hour drifted by slowly. Yasha barely stirred during the whole time, his breathing shallow and quiet.

Sasuke eventually started another conversation out of bored curiosity. "What kind of jutsu was Yasha studying?"

"Hmm? Oh, Yasha. I don't know," Naruto admitted.

"But you saw him read it," Sasuke reasoned.

Naruto frowned. "Well, yeah, but I didn't go over and ask. He didn't look like he wanted me to."

Sasuke grunted and time passed by again. Suddenly, Yasha's eyes shot open and he grabbed the lazing-back Naruto around the throat, the momentum throwing the blond backwards and the chairs fell from underneath them with an echoing crash. Sasuke jumped clear, adrenaline pulsing so suddenly he felt light-headed from the movement.

"Yasha!" Naruto yelped, grabbing the arm around his throat automatically.

Yasha gazed down at him, the firm grip relaxing and he stood up, his voice husky from sleep but the tone was apathetic. "Ohaiyo, Naruto-kun. Don't leave your throat exposed. Dying of blood on the lungs is most unpleasant."

"Hai, Yasha." Naruto nodded rapidly.

The fear in the blond's eyes vanished rather too quickly for Sasuke's liking. _'He must be used to it,' _the Uchiha thought uneasily as he tucked away the shuriken he had automatically readied into his hand.

Yasha turned, yawning widely and investigating the empty room. "So, we're on a team?"

"Yep, just like what you said." Naruto smiled.

Sasuke blinked. "What do you mean? You knew in advance?" he demanded.

"I know everything, Sasuke-kun." Yasha smirked at him.

"It's simple!" Naruto proclaimed, beginning to paraphrase Yasha. "I'm stuck with Yasha coz Yasha won't go in a team without me."

"And Naruto's one of the worst in class so he'll be put with the best, which is you," Yasha finished with a drawn-out sigh, ignoring Naruto's indignant 'Oi!'.

"Do you know who the sensei is?" Sasuke probed.

"I know details about some people," Yasha said thoughtfully, "did you see Hatake Kakashi turn up?"

"No… you know him?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, yes." Yasha smiled twistedly. "Him, I know a lot about. Like, he's late by three hours to almost everything, and he chain-reads eroge books. He's probably our sensei."

Sasuke's eyebrow twitched at the description. "Seriously?"

Yasha nodded, hastily rebalancing their opinion before they grossly underestimated the elite jounin. "But, he's one of the most powerful ninja in the village. You see, everyone has their balance of good and bad, visible and invisible. Because he's showing bad things visibly, he's trying to get you to focus on them, and distract you from other bad things about him. It's smarter than it looks, that's the whole point."

"What other bad things?" Naruto asked inquisitively.

"I don't know, but it's probably serious," Yasha reasoned. "He's kind of a loner, which is a bit odd for someone who had a genin team originally, so maybe something happened with his old team. Maybe negative traits are ones he copied in memory of them. Like being late."

Sasuke looked a bit shocked. Yasha was far cleverer when it came to people than he'd ever let on. Hold on; that explained why he'd never made any enemies or even rivals during his stay at the Academy.

Interesting train of thought. Didn't Yasha talk with That Man a few times? Maybe it was enough to understand things about him too. He might be able to give Sasuke _His_ weaknesses. Sasuke made a note to ask privately later; it was unlikely Yasha knew more of him than his own younger brother, but Sasuke had to admit he never saw _that night_ coming.

"How long have you guys been waiting?" Yasha enquired, wandering up to the board.

"Two hours and twenty-five minutes, dattebayo," Naruto replied, anger embedding itself within his tone.

"We've got just over half an hour before Hatake's ETA then. Anyone got food?"

Naruto shook his head and Sasuke grunted in the negative.

"Fine then. You guys want anything?"

"Aren't you worried he could turn up while you're out?" Naruto asked.

Yasha shook his head dismissively. "When a man's gotta eat, he's gotta eat. My sources say three hours."

"Fine, then… I want some Ichiraku Ramen!" Naruto announced at full enthusiasm.

"Hai, if you're paying. Sasuke?"

Sasuke grunted as Naruto's face fell. He was slightly hungry but not enough to risk eating. Yasha frowned at him. "Teriyaki with tomatoes?"

Sasuke flinched, almost asking how Yasha knew it but reining it in. Any idiot who listened to his fan club would know that, unfortunately. "Sure."

"I know _everyyyythhhinnggg…"_ Yasha droned, waggling his fingers spookily as he backed to the window, hopping out (carefully).

The two waited as Yasha's footsteps trailed off, half-expecting someone to jump out. Eventually Naruto frowned. "Sensei really isn't watching, huh?"

Sasuke grunted again. Although a jounin, and from what Yasha said an elite, would be very capable of watching them without being seen, but if it was a personality trait there was little chance of Hatake turning up early…

"Well, I've had enough." Naruto smirked at his classmate as he got up.

Sasuke suppressed a frown as the blond set up the eraser trap. He was an Uchiha, this wasn't something that was meant to amuse him. "A jounin won't fall for that, baka-dobe."

Naruto didn't snap back, he just grinned. "A jounin won't expect such a low-level trap. That's why it's perfect."

_'It's maybe logical, but __**perfect?**__ Definitely not. A vaguely vigilant genin would spot something like that.' _Sasuke abstained from telling the noisy blond that information, lest he catch his attention in a loud way.

About half an hour later, Naruto was scribbling something with an immensely bored look, and footsteps approached from outside the window. Yasha poked his head through. "Three Ichiraku Ramen for Hokage-sama and a teriyaki for Uchiha-sama over there."

Naruto snickered at the nicknames and went to take the hot food containers being passed through the window. Yasha's eyes drifted over the chalkboard eraser stuck in the ajar door and he smirked as he clambered inside.

_'He's observant,'_ Sasuke noted, outwardly not moving until Yasha placed the container in front of him.

"Cheers," the Uchiha managed. For some reason, he felt the urge to check for poison or some sort of prank, but it was regular takeout. Naruto ate his triple portion very noisily whereas Yasha unhurriedly made work on his single ramen.

And then a jounin opened the door, the eraser bonking off his head neatly, releasing a spray of chalk dust. Yasha chuckled merrily, Naruto roared with laughter (luckily, his mouth was empty) and Sasuke frowned. _'Is this really a jounin?'_

The silver-haired man gazed down at the marker and picked it up, rubbing his finger across the dust experimentally. _'Good, it isn't itching powder. Not that it will matter.' _Kakashi took in the slightly steaming food and deduced that it was bought recently. _'Rats, if I'd been a bit earlier I would've seen more of a reaction. Not to worry.'_

He placed the marker back on the board, turning to face the three. _'The Death Release user, the last Uchiha, and the Kyuubi's Jinchūriki. There is potential for an incredibly strong team here…' _He caught the train of thought and shoved it back into the station, scolding himself. _'It's too early to think that. They could fail as a team. The bell test is very necessary. Well, let's do some reaction testing.'_

"Well, how do I say this…" his eye drifted upwards in thought, "…my first thought of you guys is… I hate you." His eye drifted down quickly to take in the reactions.

Yasha was smiling as if it was a joke._ 'He either thinks it's a joke, or he doesn't take me seriously in general. Although, underestimating isn't likely for him, he's meant to be good at analysis. And judging from the Hokage, he's possibly a risk.'_

Naruto looked angry mixed with twinges of upset. _'He's temperamental, very emotionally sensitive, just like the report says… that'd have to be looked at.'_

And Sasuke's expression had darkened disdainfully, clearly just as indignant as Naruto, but more reserved with showing it. There was an air of superiority about him, like Kakashi wasn't worthy of dismissing him. _'And finally… damnit, Uchiha pride, another problem.'_

Yasha was definitely good, though, at hiding his emotions if nothing else. And he was the only one who hadn't straightened or tensed when the jounin entered – he was still with his feet up on the desk, eating ramen unhurriedly. That was confidence mixed with apathy; he knew his skills and he'd just detachedly see it as a silver general taking a pawn if Kakashi managed to jump him. If he knew his enemy outmatched him, he wouldn't even bother defending.

Kakashi smirked. _'Well, can't have that. Chances are Yasha's insects would vaporise the attacker after Yasha was dead, true, but that would be __**after**__ he died. If the enemy wasn't aware of Yasha's insects, his unawareness would get him killed; but any leader could send in an expendable jounin to take out Yasha. So even Yasha has work to be done.'_

Reactions done, time to progress to the meat.

"Meet me up on the roof in one minute."

And he stepped to the side and dispelled himself out of sight, letting the chalk dust fall merrily down to the floor, while the real him on the roof straightened slightly, smirking as he went through the memories. A second clone was hidden outside the classroom, inspecting their reactions to his command.

Naruto and Sasuke both hurriedly chucked their takeaway containers away in the classroom bin and belted it upstairs, Sasuke the faster one by a good margin. Yasha gazed after them, looking rather bored, then sighed heavily and did a very slow, unenthusiastic jog, still carrying his ramen. At that pace it'd take him at least three minutes.

_'This is going to be interesting,'_ the second clone thought and dispelled itself.

* * *

"Yasha, you're late," Kakashi said disappointedly, without much emphasis in his tone.

"Sorry, Sasuke, Hokage-sama. I forgot I was meant to meet up with people," Yasha sighed even more wearily as he draped himself out on Naruto's right, taking out the ramen pot that he hadn't finished.

Kakashi stretched out his senses briefly but the Hokage was nowhere nearby. _'A nickname? And they've gone in the same layout as the seating they had during class, interesting.'_

"Alright, well, let's introduce ourselves. Tell me your name, likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams. You first, blondie."

Naruto grinned confidently, fiddling with his forehead protector as he talked. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like ramen and cup ramen, and I dislike the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook. My hobbies are trying out different ramen and training! And my dream is to become Hokage!"

Kakashi's eye widened briefly. _'I see. He's grown up in an interesting way. Just the Hokage's input and friends at the ramen stand to influence him. Although Kushina was known for her love of ramen…'_

The non-Uchiha brunette swallowed his mouthful of ramen and spoke up next, tone light and humorous. "My name is Yasha, which translates to 'demon'. I like to know more than I should, and I dislike Konoha's citizens in general, and being attacked by myself. My hobbies are dodging around various powerful figures and scaring people with words. And my dream is to have a flee-on-sight in the Bingo Book, and to kill people with a hard stare."

The rest of the team, including the jounin, blinked at him. The jounin's thoughts were conflicted. _'He seems to be apathetic, amused and dangerous all at once. Intriguing. The second coming of Yūrei, perhaps.'_

Sasuke took Yasha's lead and spoke for himself, his tone dark and flat. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike a lot of things, and there aren't many things I like. My hobbies are learning jutsu and training. And my dream… no, not a dream because I will make it a _reality_… is to revive my clan and without fail, **_kill two certain men_****."**

Kakashi's eye narrowed. _'As I thought… but two? I'll have to ask the Hokage later about that.'_

The mood had gone solemn and Kakashi wondered who would break the silence. Naruto really did wear his heart on his sleeve, his fearful reaction to Sasuke was blatant, not only on his face but he was edging away from him. Yasha, in stark contrast, looked bored again, and during his own introduction had gained only a slightly confused glance from Naruto. _'That's either trust from Naruto, or Naruto recognises that speech as bull. Oh, Yasha's about to speak.'_

"Way to sell us, Mr. Happy-pants," Yasha droned.

Sasuke didn't deign himself to respond to that, although Naruto snorted and lost all his fear of Sasuke instantly.

_'Yasha definitely has a lot of control over Naruto there, the files read as much,'_ Kakashi noted. _'Uses sarcasm as a default to overcome scenarios, maybe a reality-distancing technique. The bell test is going to rip Sasuke away from the other two – Sasuke will think he won't need them and those two will stick together like glue. Even if Yasha figures out the secret is teamwork, Sasuke won't trust him and Naruto wouldn't leave him. If Yasha attempted teamwork, it'd fail even if he genuinely wanted to work together. Hmm, maybe I should just have one bell this time? That would spice things up a bit…'_

"I also like milk tea," Yasha added to his summary, attempting to bring the mood back up.

Kakashi blinked at him, before clapping his hands together. A third clone below him perked up, hitting a few seals for a subtle environment-darkening genjutsu.

He eye-smiled at the group. "Alright! Then tomorrow we'll be having a test."

"A test?!" Naruto blurted. "But what for?! We just became genin!"

"No, no." Kakashi waved his hand dismissively. "The test is to figure out graduates _most suitable_ for being genin. You're still not genin yet."

"NANIII?!" Naruto shrieked, getting winces from both the other boys at the volume. "But I went through all that for…!"

"_Anyway_," Kakashi spoke over him cheerfully, "Meet me at training ground 3 at 5AM. The test has a guaranteed failure; at least one of you will be sent back to the Academy." As he turned away, he paused with his back to them. "Oh, and don't eat breakfast." He glanced back casually with the genjutsu now fully active, peering at them with one eye. "You'll throw up if you do."

With that, he body-flickered to the ground, leaving the third shadow clone to cancel the genjutsu and observe.

"Damnit!" Naruto cursed, hitting his fists into his knees in frustration. He stood up abruptly, pointing at Sasuke, who didn't even spare him a glance. "I won't lose to you, dattebayo!"

Yasha meanwhile looked as lazed back as ever, although his eyes were narrowed in thought. _'The instruction scroll didn't mention this… it's possible Naruto's original team was formed by the splitting of other teams and the surviving members regrouped… damn. If that's the case, we're going to be ripped apart almost certainly. It's still possible Sakura gets injected into their group like the original timeline. This is bad.'_

Naruto scowled at Sasuke's lack of response and looked over at Yasha, and his face fell as he realised Yasha looked like he was contemplating… maybe thinking about working against Naruto as well. "Damnit!" the blond snapped again, running off to vent some frustration.

He knew, deep down, he couldn't beat Yasha. Yasha's bloodline meant Naruto could die if he tried to battle him in taijutsu, regardless of the number of Kage Bunshin on hand, and Naruto didn't have any genjutsu. And Naruto didn't have enough skill with long-range weapons – Yasha was equal with him, but he didn't want to hurt him by spamming him with tens of Kage Bunshin lobbing their kunai; assuming Yasha wasn't capable of dissolving the kunai like he had with the tree trunk on the Hokage monument.

All the blond's ninjutsu, Yasha used or knew of already, including Kage Bunshin. If only Yasha hadn't been there yesterday night, then his new clone technique would be hidden and Naruto would have a good chance of beating him.

Sasuke was the class genius, and Naruto knew that he was better if they went one-to-one; but flooding him with clones would work. Sasuke didn't know about them yet, and unlike Yasha he had no defence or healing mechanism. He could be worn down.

He needed to think about this. Maybe some traps would work for Yasha…

* * *

Naruto yawned as he got into bed. It had been quite a while but he was fairly confident Yasha and Kakashi would fall for at least _some_ of the traps. He had managed to find the right meeting place and guessed from the three posts near the outskirts that they would be starting off from there.

From there he had spread out into the nearby forest, setting up several groups of traps, using shadow clones – pitfalls, dulled-kunai spring-loaded tripwires, a few bags of rocks hoisted up high, eggs, catapults… even if they never ventured into the forest, he could send a clone to disarm a trap and get the materials from it. Surprise attacks.

Yasha was still up, reading that scroll of his. He'd been reading scrolls since yesterday. Naruto wasn't sure what it said on it, but he knew it was important and secret, since Yasha didn't read the scrolls at school yet spent most of his free time reading them at home, even staying up late to do so.

About fifteen minutes ago, Naruto had trudged in late, greeting his brunette housemate with a forced smile and a brief wave, made himself some instant ramen and then got straight into bed, tuckered out from his trap-setting.

As he was doing so, Yasha was frowning at the scrolls he had copied the Scroll of Sealing onto.

Kage Bunshin was really simplistic compared to some of these. Heck, Yasha couldn't even make _one_ of the base elements, let alone three mixed together _carefully_.

Yasha had copied out the entire Scroll of Sealing, knowing that a premature abortion would make him furious at himself – any text hidden by simple genjutsu would be obvious thanks to the insects, but Yasha hadn't seen any indications of that. The scroll was plain text, odd for a village that used to be paired with the Uzumaki clan.

But as far as Kage Bunshin being simplistic, Yasha had gotten down the theory behind it fairly quickly, but that still didn't mean he had the chakra to perform Kage Bunshin. A failed copy of his consciousness would result in the chakra not returning to him.

He blinked as his eyes fell on some words: Edo Tensei. Now wasn't _that_ an attractive jutsu?

It was fuuinjutsu, and a particularly odd branch at that… merging pure Yin in a barrier seal, forcibly tying it to another Yang by jamming it between the Yang's default Yin counterpart, using your own chakra as a buffer to do so. In layman's terms, wedging Person B's soul between Person A's soul and Person A's body, sealing it in with the Caster's chakra like mortar between bricks in a wall.

The result was so unnatural nature itself kept providing chakra counterparts from natural chakra in the surrounding environment – trying to remove the flaw. Hence, regeneration and constant supply of chakra to the reanimation – although the chakra available could never exceed the amount that the user had at their prime. If a person could perform a B-Rank ninjutsu and be exhausted, revived under Edo Tensei they could do a B-Rank multiple times, but couldn't do an A-Rank, even if they knew the hand seals for that A-Rank before they originally died.

Because natural chakra enforced the link (by trying to get rid of it), if the caster died, the resurrected person would live on. With some extra experimentation, one could expand to controlling the resurrected person completely through their Caster's chakra – speaking through them, telling them what jutsu to use, etc.

But without a sacrifice, it wouldn't work; the entire principle was based on having a physical body that still had a good chakra network and a soul linked to it. You couldn't wedge a something in-between two lots of nothing.

Although if you had Bijū level chakra, and hugely precise chakra control, Tobirama hypothesised you could summon a dead person onto _your own body_ and remain alive, channelling a person's spirit while manually maintaining the barrier between your soul and the summoned one's… interesting.

Of course, it would wreak havoc on your body unless you were capable of handling the constantly incoming natural chakra. Someone who was capable of using Sage Mode would be extremely risky to summon (with personality intact) under Edo Tensei, since Sage Mode would _never expire_ if the user was experienced enough. The step of detecting natural chakra and pulling it into your system would be removed; it would just leave directing that chakra.

So, that left the hypothesis of Edo Tensei on yourself while remaining alive limited to almost no one: you had to have nearly impeccable chakra control, Bijū levels of chakra, and be an expert at Sage Mode. Perhaps the First Hokage would qualify for that…

A separate theory was when the sacrifice was in limbo status until the technique fully dispelled; thus, when the caster dispelled the technique, the summoned soul could use Edo Tensei on themselves, becoming the new caster… of themselves; their own chakra replacing the Caster's, so they held themselves onto the previously-alive body.

Even if you had perfect control of the summoned being, once you dispelled there was a gap where their soul slowly removed itself from the body to return to the afterlife. At that point, there was a few seconds' window that the dead soul had control and could make hand seals in.

Hence a kinjutsu status, forbidden for multiple reasons: firstly, for Sage Mode users they could have Sage Mode near-permanently, needing much less effort to draw natural chakra – and the power-up of the dead person's Sage Mode could easily overcome the Caster's control, or just wear them down; secondly, for people who knew the seals, they could take control of themselves once the Caster released them; thirdly, there was infinite chakra supply to the created being.

If the chakra you embedded into tying the two souls/bodies together wasn't sufficient, you'd lose control of both of them. In best case scenarios, that would make the kinjutsu fail, and you'd lose the sacrifice. In worst case, you'd have an uncontrolled resurrected person on your hands.

There were also notes that the technique's fuuinjutsu seal needed work. It was only a rough draft; things needed ironing out. As such, the resurrected person was always summoned in their prime, but their chakra levels and control was below normal, considerably so. Once improved, he should have full capacity like his prime had.

But Tobirama had aborted development, partially due to the morally grey area it resided in, and partially because it was nowhere near the everyday life of the ninja villages now there was a degree of order and civility brought about by the close of the Warring Clans period. He'd never used the technique bar once, and he neglected to say who/what that once was.

To cast it, it was Tiger, Snake, Dog, Dragon. That assigned the contract; the contract itself, like animal summons, had to be written on a scroll, and activated with chakra. Yasha memorised the seals _very_ carefully. He wouldn't use Edo Tensei in the future – lack of parts, chakra capacity and reason to – but he could escape after someone summoned him now he knew them. _'Just four hand seals at the right time… that's all it will take.'_

Moving on. Details about fuuinjutsu…

_Oh._

_Ohhhhh._

Kage Bunshin at the start… then elemental techniques… then some genjutsu…. then Edo Tensei… then fuuinjutsu.

The Second Hokage's legacy was here – the scroll described most of his techniques. That was what this Scroll of Sealing was about – a tutorial lesson for future Hokages or what have you.

That explained why Tobirama started with Kage Bunshin and then described a wide spread of techniques, then went into branches of sealing he had investigated – mostly space-time, probably his best techniques. He seemed to invade the realm of the afterlife a lot.

Come to think of it, it made sense to; there was a connection between the person's spirit and the afterlife – otherwise, how would the spirit know where to go otherwise?

And the person's spirit in turn was connected to their body, either by blood or chakra or both. Thus it could be accessed by anyone.

There was also a good emphasis on water techniques, Suiton, and a couple of genjutsu. One genjutsu name in particular caught Yasha's eye: Bringer of Darkness. It wiped out all ability for opponents to see around them, and heavily reduced hearing, as well.

The genjutsu had to be constantly reapplied on the environment, and focus to ignore applying it to any allies inside the environment. The reapplication meant it was unbreakable, even particularly strong releases would distort it on a barely helpful level. Even sensor-nin had problems detecting through the genjutsu.

However, weaknesses were still there: smell, taste and touch were unrestricted; use of chakra to lessen or enhance the senses that the genjutsu didn't affect could still be done; and finally, concealed opponents and ones encased in something (e.g. underwater, underground) couldn't have the genjutsu applied to them.

And finally, if the caster was constantly applying a two-hand seal, he was unable to attack or defend properly – he'd need someone protecting him. If he misapplied the genjutsu so it affected an ally, he had to break the whole genjutsu for everyone and reapply it, at full chakra cost.

Those significant weak points explained its B-Rank status. A precise diagram showed the areas of the brain affected. Yasha hummed thoughtfully. It was simple to cast, little imagination required – just blank out the areas – but required good chakra control and sensory/observation to place on moving targets. Although if they never attempted to release it, a single short application would be sufficient.

Kurenai's scroll, albeit only consisting of a few pages and drawings that probably only took her a lesser part of an hour, would come in very handy here, for targeting multiple people.

And if Yasha could work out how to apply _darkness-enforced _sense-killing genjutsu, it would be perfect; he'd just whip it out, everyone would go blind and near-deaf, and he wouldn't even need to maintain it.

Still, those weaknesses were considerably crippling until then. And he needed seven hand seals, but reducible to just Tiger. Good; with a lot of focus, he could practice that until it became a half-seal or ideally no seal at all.

Now _that_ would cause a Flee On Sight. An enemy who can blind and near-deafen you with minimal effort in an unreleasable genjutsu.

Yasha's current genjutsu of Hell Viewing differed in rank and application. It was a D-Rank because it changed the whole environment very detectably, and was probably unenforceable because it displayed a scene – if you reapplied the scene, it would create a mishmash of two dying characters and two sceneries that would confuse any viewer probably more than it would shock them. It'd be like having concussion.

The interesting fact was that _real_ darkness near him was more dangerous to enemies than genjutsu-applied ones. Interesting – and unbreakable genjutsu was unprecedented. So, he could make people think the genjutsu and the insect-releasing was related, when actually the origin was wildly different – yell out "Destruction Insects: Area Flood" or some bull, and then use Bringer of Darkness, and everyone would freak out from what they presumed was being surrounded by insects.

Even if Kurenai was willing to teach while retaining a genin team, she would want to know how he found out about the Bringer of Darkness technique. Yasha had Kage Bunshin to experiment on now, though. He could play with this technique – see if he could dim the environment like what happened when his insects released, make the target have gradually-narrowing tunnel vision… change it so hearing was completely gone, feeling as well.

(Come to think of it, could he place genjutsu on himself? His own genjutsu chakra shouldn't be dislodged by the swarms… or would it be? Hard to say. It was worth checking.)

Either way, doing a sensory changes would be harder. Yasha wasn't sure how sensing worked at all; he was no sensor nin. He had very _vague_ ideas and half-thoughts that the insects tucked in every shadow _may_ send to him as he passed by, giving him good detecting instincts if he crossed someplace an enemy had been, but nothing he could ever call sensory. If the enemy hadn't been in that spot, then he'd be unable to detect them.

Not so good for ambushes, but still good for traps. It was how he detected the pressure-sensitive explosive notes/genjutsu by the front door – the person who placed them had done it from the same place Yasha had walked over.

Kage Bunshin were a very useful addition. Technically, he could clone himself once, send the clone outside Konoha, get the clone to split into even more clones… job done.

Interestingly, mental experiences and chakra drain returned to the user. Presumably, the insects clinging to his clone would come back as well. Maybe a Kage Bunshin could take _all_ of his insects and he could chat to his friends without seeming scary to them. It would make a nice change.

On the other hand, his ability to manipulate would be lowered without the insects subtly supplying information about the others to him. It might make him uncomfortable.

Something awkward though: he would endure a rather harsh sensation at random as his clone divided into sub-clones. Because if the first clone made second and third… well, best to describe it with quantities.

If the original had four apples, and created a single clone, both would have two apples. When the clone split into three (that is, three including itself), the split yanked one apple from the original so the original and all three clones had one apple equally.

Simply put, the chakra was divided between all clones and the original evenly. So if a clone divided, more chakra was dragged from the pre-existing clones and the original. So after he sent a clone off to split itself for training, at some point later, he'd become aware of a good amount of his chakra being pulled away to form extra clones.

Although it did mean the original might have more chakra drawn away by a clone re-cloning, which could be fatal if you're about to do a high-rank technique and your chakra's cut away, leaving you without enough capacity.

It would be like… powering down unexpectedly. He wasn't looking forward to enduring _that_ sensation, that was for sure. During a battle, it would be at best extremely distracting, and any sort of experienced ninja would notice the chakra presence lowering suddenly, making them move in to attack with more confidence.

Although, memories were sent back. So, KI aside, Clone A forming a Clone B, then Clone A dispelling itself, would give Clone B the same chakra level as Clone A had (excluding the cost of the technique). And every other clone (plus the original) would receive the memories of Clone A for the exchange.

Would that be jarring as well? Imagine doing a search north and _bam_, memories of searching east hits you. Would it be like a flashback, or seeing the clone's life flash before your eyes, or would it neatly set into place alongside the pre-existing memories with a comforting power-up buzz, the new memories accessible but not interrupting?

That could only be checked by testing his shadow clone capacity. It was loosely Yin-based, so the cost would be minor for him, (…right?) but it was still a B-Rank. Barring his rank-less bloodline abilities, he hadn't gone above D-Rank in performed jutsu yet.

Maybe Yasha should perfect Bringer of Darkness first. It was a B-Rank as well; it'd set the bar and if it failed, the worst that would happen would be a vaguely dulled senses rather than perfectly darkened one. As opposed to Kage Bunshin failure, which would result in chakra exhaustion point blank; your chakra being cut in half and there being insufficient to create the clone, leaving you to essentially expel most if not all of your chakra in a second. Cue severe chakra exhaustion.

It would ruin the surprise, though… and Shikaku Nara couldn't be a test subject, nor could Kurenai. There was a good chance they knew where the technique originated from; and Shikaku was no doubt involved in one of the wars Tobirama was. Genin accessing B-Ranks wasn't exactly normal.

Being smart, it was a better idea to test Bringer of Darkness first, to test if he could do a B-Rank. Being hidden, it was a better idea to use Kage Bunshin, since only then could he actually test Bringer of Darkness on someone without raising questions.

Naruto could be used at a pinch, but he was pants at describing things and his senses weren't exactly fine-tuned. Plus his own Kage Bunshin would leave Yasha defencelessly holding up Bringer of Darkness while hundreds of clones scurried around blindly until they found him. In short, Yasha would get pummelled. If he kicked a clone away and managed to retain focus on the genjutsu, all the other clones would have a better idea where he was.

Finally, the scroll's water techniques could just wait. Yasha wasn't ready for elemental anything. What was his affinity? Did insects-eat-everything bloodline mean no affinity? Would they just eat the paper? Who knew.

Zack probably didn't. Yasha doubted his past resets would have cracked elemental chakra manipulation in the five months or so they were around. Although he was interested about how far the past resets had gotten, if they had Kage Bunshin. Of course, the instruction scroll being minimalist, it neglected to say. Or maybe it neglected to say because Yasha didn't get the Scroll of Sealing, or manage to use Kage Bunshin in any reset?

Again, who knew.

Now, moving on – Yasha interrupted his thoughts with a yawn – there was the question of that exam tomorrow…

At least one person would drop out? That'd make things confusing. The Hokage no doubt knew of this test – and he knew the potential of all three candidates in this group.

Yasha highly doubted the last Uchiha would be sent back to the Academy. The sheer bad publicity that would gain would wreak havoc on Konoha's reputation.

The Jinchūriki Naruto, shunned by trainers, was most likely to fail. In a serious fight Yasha had him beat, fair and simple; KI release and Naruto and all his clones were out of it. Sasuke was also a genius, he could easily beat Naruto as well; he was fast enough and agile enough to evade until he was in a place he could take him on one-on-one.

But the Hokage wouldn't target Naruto like that with this kind of test, he was one of the few who liked the kid – or at least saw potential in him, for whatever ulterior motive. So maybe he was targeting Yasha with this test?

No, that didn't make sense either; Yasha was easily the best way to protect Naruto covertly; no one was expecting a genin with enough KI to wake up a whole village on the same team as the Jinchūriki.

And besides, Yasha was plenty happy to be held back a year by a dodgy post-grad genin test – after all, he had Kage Bunshin jutsu and things to train, and he wasn't particularly keen about being known as a prodigy, just flee-on-sight scary. But Yasha's bloodline also had good properties that any spy worth their salt would have noticed. Maybe the Hokage wanted Yasha to drop out as a loser, to reassure the citizens Yasha wasn't so scary?

Ha. He wasn't going down tomorrow without a fight.

Sasuke would have to be surprised. Yasha was fairly confident Sasuke hadn't seen his full fighting ability, but then he hadn't seen Sasuke's, either. A quick Henge to lower his speed and hopefully he could get a good hit in before Sasuke cottoned on. Of course, there was only a few times that would work. The weakness of a lightened Henge was obvious: lightened bones = more damage received.

You could cheat by making the fist bones denser, but then the wrist broke; then you could do the arm, but then the shoulder would; then the ribs would… etc. It was just about timing the release of the Henge.

His bloodline was a no-no. Murdering wasn't the goal, and knockout by KI simply wouldn't help long-term. On the off chance even someone like Kakashi could be defeated by his KI alone, then what happened if an opponent showed up who brushed the KI off? He'd be deadified.

Naruto, Yasha could probably beat in a fair fight… but it wasn't going to be one-on-one, now Naruto could turn into a thousand or so clones. He could bottleneck them by climbing a tree, maybe… but never underestimate a mob.

But to have Naruto fall back into the Academy without him would be hell for the blond. Naruto needed Kakashi's training – for some reason Naruto had stopped reading the scroll until Kage Bunshin was done; probably planning to work his way through the scroll's jutsu one by one.

Naruto had one decent B/A-Rank technique and everything else lacked. He'd be miserable for a full year whereas Yasha didn't particularly care about people's expectations AND had things to work on from the Scroll of Sealing for that same remedial year. He needed Kakashi's training far less.

It'd certainly be interesting seeing the nature of the 'survival' test. Taijutsu? Retrieval? A knockout spar?

Screw that not eating breakfast, though. Yasha wouldn't be fully awake without some energy, particularly not his tea. He'd be coherent, he was coherent seconds after waking… but he wouldn't be _fast_. His reflexes would suck ass and both Naruto-mobs and Sasuke-prodigy could kick his butt with ease.

Yasha hummed as he tucked the scroll away. He would keep that on his person until it was fully memorised. The chances of having Kakashi steal it were high, but leaving it at home left it unobserved and up for ANBU nabbing. Yasha would rather it was stolen by an elite under his nose and he knew about it, than behind his back and he never knew. Unless he could figure out a hiding spot…

Pondering on a good hiding spot, the brunette made his way to bed. He couldn't test Kage Bunshin until tomorrow evening at least, post-test.

Maybe the whole team would fail? That would be _hilarious_.

Unless Yasha somehow mastered the entire Scroll of Sealing during his remedial year at the Academy, then it would start to suck.

He stepped around the broken glass absently and laid down, thoughtful black eyes fixed on the empty light fixture.

Actually, shit. The Uchiha brats. He had had them for a month and they drained half of his savings – far more than he had expected. If he failed the exam, eight kids would be booted out to orphanages in under a month, far too early for him to think they'd slip under the radar. The massacre had been just a month ago, and people were still fawning over Sasuke and rumours flying around.

Yasha needed at bare minimum another few months to feel secure about releasing them to orphanages; maybe half a year, but he'd need something seriously drastic if he wanted to obtain funds from Konoha before he made genin. Like burning down his home or something, then buying a super-crappy apartment to get excess cash.

Wait no, the Hokage would probably pay attention to that sort of detail; maybe even assign ANBU again as arson protection or something, and Yasha couldn't risk that, damnit. Yasha could claim running out of funds, but his sponsor was meant to be clever and well-off, so he would be expected to have enough. It would raise suspicion and attention to some extent.

And Yasha could guess the funds he would receive for his and Naruto's upkeep would be fairly minimal, coming from the government and with council disliking them and all. In fact, Yasha doubted he could even make the Uchiha place's rent alone with it. And that still left feeding them, clothing them, entertaining them…

_'Guess I have to pass tomorrow, then.'_

* * *

"Good morning, students!"

"YOU'RE LATE!" the blond roared, jabbing his finger at him. "BY THREE HOURS!"

"Ah, sorry," Kakashi pointed vaguely behind him, "there was a black cat and…" his gaze trailed over the two kids, subconsciously checking for stances, weapon bulges, body language, intent, and "…where's Yasha?"

Naruto shrugged, anger distracted at the concern for his closest friend. "He set his own alarm and was still in bed when I left."

Sasuke scowled deeper. Damn this jounin. And Yasha appeared to be even worse at timing. Damn him equally. He had to endure/ignore Naruto's frustrated groans, yells and pacing, whereas Sasuke preferred to simmer quietly – on the wisdom of testing his ability to kill a certain jounin-sensei for experience before he killed That Man.

At that point a voice interrupted his thoughts. "What are you guys all doing here?"

Kakashi blinked at the new arrival. He had evidently kept the two other members of his team within sight. Kakashi had detected three onlookers in total, but dismissed them, knowing the Hokage was interested in this, and most likely Iruka as well. So Yasha had been one of them. Why did he avoid being seen too early? "Yasha, you're late… again."

"Yeah, I'd hate for this to become a habit or something."

His breath's scent was mostly milk tea, Kakashi noted. Not toothpaste or morning breath, so he had drunk it after getting up – and recently. Sense of humour was quite sarcastic, like yesterday. He had an undertone of arrogance today too, being he not-so-subtly told Kakashi 'if you want to tell me off for being late, you better fix up first'.

Yasha seemed fairly lethargic despite the caffeine. He looked ready to fall asleep on the spot.

Kakashi had put some thought into the test, and abandoned tradition because it would be completely predictable. Sasuke would immediately distance himself from the other two, knowing the two had a strong and obvious pre-existing friendship, and Yasha couldn't swap Naruto for Sasuke even if he wanted to.

Even if Sasuke figured out the meaning of the test, and overcame his pride, he'd have to convince Yasha. And _if_ Yasha decided to trust him, Naruto would have to be coerced into working with Sasuke.

Hardly teamwork.

And then there was the end result of having two bells:

If Naruto had two bells he would just give one to Yasha, cutting Sasuke out completely.

If Sasuke got two, he'd give one to Yasha. He saw Naruto as weak, Naruto's multiplying ability wouldn't sway that opinion too far; several times weak would still be weak to him.

Yasha having two bells would be interesting, Kakashi couldn't read him that well, knowing he could be quite ruthless… but chances are he'd give one to Naruto. Yasha lived with the blond, he would feel obligated.

But put simply, they wouldn't work together as a group of three to get two to pass – Sasuke would be distanced from the other two, regardless of if/who Kakashi let have the bells.

The test was too predictable with two bells. So, Kakashi had concluded one bell was best for tearing them all apart, and doing some info gathering.

And the end result of having one bell:

Naruto wouldn't want to give it to Sasuke for anything, but he wouldn't want to abandon Yasha nor his dream of being Hokage, putting him on the spot. The Hokage was interested in his relationship with Yasha – it was ridiculously strong because Yasha distanced him from other kids. Whichever way Naruto swayed would help understand that relationship.

Yasha would have a similar dilemma; a boy that smart would know what it would do to Naruto to have his dream denied, especially after the extra effort needed just to get past graduation. On the other hand, Yasha could be quite cruel when he needed to be; unlike Naruto's one-track personality, Yasha had quite a varied and unpredictable mindset, with his unknown goals and power-grabbing personality, but an undertone of wanting to protect children from suffering.

If Yasha kept the bell for himself, then Naruto would be split from him, just what the Hokage wanted to regain control. If he gave it to Naruto, it would prove their friendship wasn't solely for power and manipulation as it seemed, which also suited the Hokage just fine.

Finally, Sasuke with one bell would keep it – flunking the test, and teaching him a good lesson, but that's ignoring the fact the council would be breathing down Kakashi's neck about letting the Uchiha, center of the media spotlight, flunk his test.

So, Kakashi was going to make certain if any person got the one bell, it wouldn't be Sasuke. The brat was already Uchiha levels of proud and arrogant, if the council insisted on passing him anyway, then it'd be a solo win, which at this stage would teach Sasuke nothing but to throw everyone else aside. Kakashi wanted to avoid that if at all possible.

"Alright." The Copy Nin cleared his throat, turning the smouldering/bored/questioning gazes to him. He put a clock down and set it for three hours. "You guys simply have to get this bell in your possession before the clock runs out. If you have it before then, I won't attempt to take it from you, but you still have to have the bell in your possession when the alarm rings."

The bell jingled merrily in his grip. "If you fail to have the bell in your possession by the time the alarm goes off…" he caught the bell within his hand as he lost his eye-smile, "you will fail and go back to the Academy."

Sasuke's face set in determination. Yasha raised an eyebrow, looking puzzled. Naruto looked confused, and spoke up, "Um, why is there only one bell, sensei?"

"Well, since there's only one bell, at least two of you will be returning to the Academy. Or all three of you."

As Naruto's face grew stony in determination, Yasha seemed to realise something, and a smile twitched at his mouth, quickly hidden. Kakashi didn't like the sight of that.

"As well as that, whoever gets a bell will eat lunch." Kakashi produced a bento and placed it beside the clock. "Whoever fails will be tied to the logs and I'll eat your bento in front of you."

Yasha looked smarmy as his stomach remained silent while the other two looked furious as they realised they'd been had. He _had_ eaten recently. Kakashi didn't comment.

"Now then, to get this bell, you will have to come at me with intent to kill. Any weapons, sharp or blunt, and any jutsu are allowed. I'm a jounin, I can handle your little techniques."

Yasha raised his eyebrow in a silent question about his bloodline and Kakashi deliberately gave no response. _'Let him stew over it, it'd reveal more about his personality. Come to think of it, KI above jounin-level would flatten Yasha's teammates if he put some hatred against them into it as well… this'll be interesting,'_ Kakashi thought gleefully as another eye-smile crossed his face. He hit the clock. "Ready… start!"

Sasuke and Naruto both dived away into cover. Yasha laid down on the ground, arms underlapped behind his head. Kakashi wondered what he was thinking, highly intrigued. Sasuke was easily better at hiding himself; Kakashi, having not moved his eye other than a casual sweep, couldn't spot him. Naruto had just hidden behind a tree but his bright orange tracksuit was still very obvious – even though he was in shade.

"Psst. Yasha," Naruto hissed rather loudly from the tree. Kakashi pulled his Icha Icha Paradise out and rolled his eye at the terrible concealment.

Yasha turned his head. "We're not working together on this one, Naruto. See it as another spar. Also, use a Henge or something, that orange is way too obvious."

Naruto tutted angrily. "Fine, I'll stop hiding then!"

He stomped outwards towards Kakashi, yelling rather loudly, "I'M GONNA TAKE THOSE BELLS, DATTEBAYO!" With a prolonged battle-cry he ran forward, rather slow from what Kakashi was used to. The jounin didn't even have to look past his book.

Then, all of a sudden, Naruto's foot was inches away from his side. Kakashi's eye widened as he twisted away from the minor damage. There was five of Naruto snuck up behind him. _'Kage Bunshin?!'_

He hadn't heard them coming from the yelling drowning out their footsteps. So the over-loudness was a deliberate distraction. _'Smart.'_

Kakashi dodged hastily, even more clones emerging from the trees. Naruto was by no means fast, nor accurate, but _because_ his movements were so jerky and inaccurate, combined with the number of clones, it was hard to follow what he was doing or if it was a clone free-for-all.

Kakashi felt the ground under his foot give and he rapidly twisted his chakra without a hand seal, using Replacement on one of the clones. _'A pit trap? How? Naruto didn't have time for that. It must have been premeditated – this kid's holding a façade of stupidity with his yelling, but he's the most planned out of all of them.'_

Kakashi wasn't going to be beaten by him, though. Not on the first attempt.

At that point a second trap triggered and kunai flew at him. _'One of the clones set it off… accidentally? Or on purpose?' _Kakashi used Replacement again, only to find the log was a weight for another trap. A third Replacement was used rapidly and he was free.

'Kami-sama," he breathed, still a bit stunned, "I don't have time to read Icha Icha around here."

He had expected Sasuke or maybe Yasha to worry him, but Naruto as well?

Slapping his hands together, the jounin used Kage Bunshin and then Body-Flicker to investigate the bento lunches. He had seen Naruto sneaking glances at them and he wouldn't put it past Yasha to do something underhanded with them either. Although with Sasuke's pride, he wouldn't go near them.

They were unsealed but closed, and there were extra footprints and strong smells of Yasha, and his laid-down pose had changed.

"Just wanted to see if the bento was any good," Yasha explained, although his sensei hadn't asked.

Kakashi inspected the contents of the bento (intact, food looked undisturbed) while distant sounds of Naruto's clones arguing amongst themselves could be heard. He dismissed it. "You seem a bit relaxed."

"Hmm. I saw a weakness," came the cool response.

Yasha reminded him of Nara folk, actually. Lazy, preferring to observe in the background, and _deviously_ clever. The jounin wasn't sure what weakness Yasha had found, but he had little doubt it was a genuine one.

_'Maybe he was going to target my book?'_ He tapped his pouch with a slight pang of concern. Still very much there. Yasha's scent had only been between where he was now and the boxes.

No, although taking the book would distract very well, it was tucked inside a pouch or in his hand, whereas the bell was tied to the outside of Kakashi's belt. It was harder to access and Yasha would still fail the test if he had Kakashi's entire collection.

Naruto emerged from the forest, looking a bit worse for wear from his clones turning on each other after Kakashi's own shadow clone vanished. He mentally vowed never to speak of that, and glowered at the nonchalant Kakashi standing in the same place he was before, like Naruto's attacks had never happened. He lobbed shuriken, and the jounin didn't even glance to the side, catching all of them on two fingers by his enhanced hearing alone.

No one expected Sasuke to have thrown his shuriken from a different angle at the same time and the jounin promptly used another seal-less Replacement.

Naruto looked shocked and then thoughtful as the log appeared, riddled with shuriken. Yasha only raised an eyebrow again at the jounin's apparent death, not buying it from the start.

Kakashi was more interested in the apathetic Yasha than the other two. Sasuke was proud, Naruto was thick-headed, but Yasha acted on impulse… but after thinking it through.

The jounin knew if Yasha got serious, _someone_ would end up with the bell. He'd knock his teammates on their faces with KI, and Kakashi wasn't sure if he himself could withstand it that well. During that time the Third had wound Yasha up, Yasha had released levels even Kakashi wasn't used to.

Although, Yasha didn't look particularly angry nor did he know how to control KI that well.

Yasha spoke, sounding thoughtful. "You know, Kakashi-sensei…"

"Hmm?" Kakashi flipped a page and attempted to sound disinterested.

"What happens if the clock never hits the time when the alarm goes off?"

Yasha held up two batteries, making his fellow classmates' jaws drop as they looked at the non-ticking clock.

The silver-haired jounin gazed at him steadily, finally working out the weakness Yasha spotted. _'So that was what he was actually doing near the posts. He misdirected me by talking about the bento. He's smart.'_

The jounin shrugged. "I suppose, we have to revise the rules a little, since you found a loophole."

"I assumed we neither pass nor fail since the time limit is never reached."

"Give," Kakashi ordered shortly, and Yasha threw the batteries to him without hesitation. Kakashi deftly reactivated the clock and called out with a hint of sternness, "Another rule, you three: disabling the clock or the alarm from now on will fail you. You now have _two_ hours."

"Boo." Yasha gave the jounin a thumbs-down. "Time is an illusion based on our inability to perceive everything at once."

Kakashi balked at the philosophical view in the middle of what was (technically) a battlefield. His tone became condescending, hoping to rouse some anger and nip the disinterest in the bud. "Do you need me to give you lessons on how a clock works?"

"I wonder if you have enough experience to do that," Yasha retorted easily.

"Personally, I think you both suck at telling time, you both were late," Naruto threw in his bit as he strode towards Kakashi at a more relaxed pace.

Yasha shrugged, still lazing flat-back on the grass. "I can tell time, I'm just compensating for Sensei's lack of knowledge."

"Two occurrences does not make a trend," Kakashi pointed out.

Yasha smirked. "I didn't think you were trendy anyway."

Kakashi rolled his eye at the wordplay. "I'll have you know many people respect how cool I am."

Yasha's smirk grew. "Do you mean _~youthful~?_" he emphasised in a flowery way.

Kakashi shivered and his tone became definite. "No."

"He's _~youthful~_," Yasha concluded with finality.

"Definitely." Naruto nodded.

Sasuke watched them with a confused look, not understanding the exchange at all. But ranged attacks hadn't worked on Kakashi so far. Might as well inch closer while the duo were distracting him.

"But he doesn't look youthful. He looks old," Naruto pointed out.

"No, I assure you, he's _~youthful~_. He is in the _~Springtime of Youth~_."

Kakashi shivered again. Kami-sama, this team… "How much time have you been spending around Maito Gai?"

"Your boyfriend? Not a lot… but I've heard the rumours."

Kakashi suppressed his gag reflex at the imagery of Gai being his _boyfriend_. Sasuke hadn't contributed yet, attempting to sneak closer looking innocent, but his widened eyes assured Yasha he was listening.

"He can't have a boyfriend. He's a guy!" Naruto protested in disbelief.

"With a good Henge, that doesn't mean much in the bedroom. I always wondered why the Academy taught that at such a young age…"

At that point _everyone_ was suppressing their gag reflex.

KI flared and something _exploded_ past the distracted Kakashi at a speed he simply wasn't ready for. Kakashi looked back in shock at the new figure as his hair whipped wildly in the sudden wind. The bell jingled behind him at a distance. _'WHAT?! None of them were that fast. That was faster than most Body Flickers, and you needed a __**mastery**__ of that to move quicker. How?!'_

"Oops." Yasha held up the bell. "Look at what I found."

Sasuke's jaw dropped. Yasha had appeared to just release a weird pulse that blew wind against all the grass around him, and then half a second later he was ten metres from the other side of Kakashi, wielding the bell. He was so fast the wind had blown _after_ he had got there.

For once in his life, Kakashi looked truly stunned, and a certain Uchiha was completely speechless. Naruto's jaw was as close to the floor as it could reach.

Then Kakashi shrugged, giving an eye-smile as he dispelled himself. Yasha smirked as he let his now empty hand fall, the Bunshin's bells dispelling as well.

"How the hell…" Naruto gasped at him open-mouthed. "You went super-fast, dattebayo! And Kakashi knows Kage Bunshin?!"

Sasuke looked about as startled as Yasha would see him – eyes wide, mouth slightly open, eyebrows raised.

"It's not hard, you just run and grab." Yasha grinned, waving his hand dismissively, ignoring the throbbing in his legs. He had made a triple play on three risks and his abilities – throw a pulse of Yin chakra towards Kakashi (as genjutsu would do) to distract him, use a seal-less Henge to lower his weight, and overloaded the muscles in his Henge'd legs to throw himself forward, with his hand stuck out to the side. His muscles were burning, no doubt severely damaged – he had to regenerate them very soon, it was becoming agonising to stay standing up.

If Yasha didn't have regeneration, training-scroll-knowledge on Kakashi, and the idea of a low-weight Henge, it probably would've been slow enough for Kakashi to avoid… even distracted by disturbing thoughts of why children were taught a technique that allowed them to change their gender and body shape. The fact Yasha was a child and thus naturally smaller, with less wind resistance, helped as well.

"You've never run that fast before!" Naruto insisted excitedly.

"Don't assume you've seen all my limits." Yasha's expression switched to a scowl. "And beside that, I've told you before, don't tell anyone my strengths and weaknesses. _Ever._ Seriously."

Naruto blinked at the keyword and waved his hands defensively, not wanting to incur Yasha's wrath. "You surprised me, that's all, dattebayo!"

"What technique was that? A body flicker?" Sasuke demanded tersely.

"No," Yasha responded shortly. "And come on, a body flicker is only D-Rank. It'd never work against Kakashi. Most jounin work with A-Ranks by default."

Sasuke was about to huff and turn away dismissively, but Naruto spoke first, his eyes glinting mischievously as he looked at his analytical teammate. "What _will_ work?"

Yasha began, his confident smirk returning. "Something unexpected will beat Kakashi. I've just proven that."

The other two boys nodded, Sasuke turning back, both now looking eager. Yasha mentally raised his eyebrow at Sasuke joining in so easily. Distracted by the thoughts of getting the better of a jounin, he had come out of his stoic façade without noticing.

Regardless, the Death Release user continued. "Let's see, I have things too powerful to use here, and short bursts of speed like that. Preferably done on open ground, but I might be able to deal otherwise. Naruto, give me his fighting details."

Naruto nodded, accepting his role. He had been taught by Yasha up until now, and he knew not to question him when the brunette got into involving Naruto like this; it'd interrupt Yasha's flow/plan and he'd give up on the explanation instantly, aborting any chance of helping them. "He's very fast. I had some traps set up but he got past all of them. He underestimated me, but I don't have any more tricks… beside the Se-_mf!_"

Yasha covered his mouth abruptly and turned to the other brunette. "Sasuke, observation details."

"He's…" Sasuke spoke eagerly, the pace of the conversation and dying adrenaline making his voice change. He coughed and hastily reined his emotions back in. "He's reading a book, and it looks worn. It might be valuable to him. Otherwise, he can underestimate a bit easily."

Yasha's eyes gleamed. "Okay, good. He puts the book in his pouch, meaning he's designed the pouch to carry a book, not just kunai and such. You guys know what the best way to get someone to underestimate is?"

Sasuke nodded. "Use a simple plan, make him think he's winning."

"Precisely. All you have to do is look like you're worse than you are. He's a jounin, not used to genin speeds and skills, he's not sure how far he has to cut himself down to give us a fighting chance – if you act below normal he won't be able to work it out."

Sasuke nodded again, assimilating it. It was sound logic.

Naruto interrupted, a confused look on his face. "Why are you telling us this, Yasha-kun? There's only one bell." Sasuke blinked in realisation and turned to Yasha with a raised eyebrow.

Yasha shrugged. "Well, I'll be honest… he won't fall for Sasuke on his own, and I'm guessing Sasuke can't solid-clone himself?"

Sasuke shook his head slightly, scowling. Naruto grinned rather cheerfully at his superiority.

"However, Naruto's clones and traps are equally useless because he'll be ready for them; he's seen them both." The blond's smile dropped at the truth and he frowned. "So that means both of you two won't stand a chance on your own." Sasuke scowled harder, looking ready to protest but Yasha continued rapidly, "With both of you together, maybe. But with me as well, we've all got a good chance."

"What do we do with the bell after?" Naruto asked bluntly, exchanging a suspicious look at Sasuke, who glared back at him.

"You take it, split into three clones, and the clones hand us two each a bell. Thus, we're all holding it." Yasha enjoyed their expressions of realisation. "Or we steal his book too and hold it ransom. Or, we can have a big fight about who contributed the most. Or we can use rock-paper-scissors. He won't attack us once we have it, so let's decide that once we get it, huh?"

Sasuke turned to Naruto who looked back, and the two shrugged at the same time.

Yasha concluded, "Here's the summary: go for his book if you can, and keep each other in the game if you want a shot at winning. If one of us goes down our collective power is hamstringed."

"I have more traps set up," Naruto offered, "but we don't have much time left."

Yasha nodded briskly. "Well, use clones to find him. Get them to yell out if you see him."

"Good idea!"

* * *

**AN:** I was just about to post everything I have written, then I realised that's 30k words. Pfft. You gain followers by posting more chapters, hitting Most Recently Updated list a lot. So, this is cut in half, kinda.

It's still 12k, and I'll release the next part… maybe two weeks, maybe earlier, depends if I get enough review luv'ng or extreme boredom or other such motivations.

Do you think the three can outwit Kakashi?

PS: Also, my computer's C: drive died. But me being smart, I backed up my stories to another drive. And me being a hacker, I managed to install Windows 10, set it all up, and then _create a clone of it on another drive_ – with all my settings, all my programs, including Office, Manga Studio, etc, and I can boot to either. So if one drive dies, I can literally get straight back to desktop in 30 seconds, instead of having to reformat and reinstall Windows and crud over three days. I'm highly shocked it works after my sheer guesswork.

And Crucial/Amazon is giving me a full refund for the dead drive, no return of drive needed.  
I once bought something really expensive and electrical from the US, but it kept dying, and Amazon literally spent $1000 sending me replacements and refunds, express international postage too. That's their unspoken limit on trying to get an order right, $1000. At that point, they gave me a partial refund and a gift card for the rest.

Not that this has anything to do with the story. Heil the great Markimoo. And the Firey Dan. I like those guys.

See you on the flip side.

**Inhale.**


	33. No pain, no gain

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 33: No pain, no gain_**

* * *

**AN:** I haven't written anything since last time :( There's like less than 1 chapter left on the fic, as far as I've written anyway.  
I may start producing a second fanfic, to run alongside this one, and it'll be part of this one's story as well. It'll overlap the story, and show a different part that this one won't, since it'd be centred around a different character.

Enjoy part two, and have a good 2016!

* * *

Sasuke watched with a bit of withheld irritation as his classmate did a technique he didn't know and twenty Narutos ran off into the trees. The three [maybe-]genin had grouped together and planned very quickly, and Yasha made sense with the way he planned. Even if Sasuke didn't want to admit it, Yasha was quick off the mark, and his plan was solid… and if nothing else Naruto's jutsu (and thus Naruto) was best equipped for locating the jounin. Still, it grated a little.

Yasha smirked at him. "You know if it comes down to it, you'll probably win in a straight fight against us two, one-on-one."

Sasuke turned back to him, interested. "Why do you think so?"

Yasha shrugged. "My other techniques are untested, and other ones you'd hate me for using. So I wouldn't use them except in life-or-death scenarios. In a one-on-one, you'd never see my worst techniques."

Sasuke shrugged at him, the one person who had agreed to help him get revenge against Itachi. "You should use them anyway." A scowl appeared as his mind drifted into the gutter of his memories. "You ought to know that hating people isn't a new thing for me. It gives me strength."

Yasha shook his head and gave Sasuke a disappointed look, making the other brunette scowl darker (if that was possible). Yasha's reply was assured. "Trust me, hating people just distracts you from your surroundings."

"Well said," Kakashi offered from behind Sasuke, making him jump and lash out with his kunai, which Kakashi leaned back casually to avoid. The silver-haired jounin continued, "You'll be so busy thinking of ways to kill a certain person, you'll miss out on training on ways to deal with _other_ opponents you would meet before you even get to that person. If you expect to go against someone with fire techniques and all you plan to use is water, if someone on a lesser level specialising with wind attacks you, you'll be defeated."

"That's a clone, right?" Sasuke asked, eyes flickering over Kakashi analytically.

Yasha shrugged, looking as bored as ever, although his posture was slightly tense. "Beats me. Even the Sharingan can't tell the difference."

"How would you know that?" Sasuke demanded, instantly rounding on Yasha instead of the jounin with his black eyes blazing.

Yasha made up something, spinning the truth a misleading but not inaccurate way. "The way Kage Bunshin works is the chakra is distributed evenly. There'd be no difference, so all of them will look the same to doujutsu."

Sasuke turned back, frowning. "Hm."

_'I'll be naturally disadvantaged at beating that, then…' _After a while a thought hit him and he turned back to Yasha. "You can do Kage Bunshin too?!"

Yasha shook his head. "No, I just have theories, I've never performed it." Another truth that was misleading; he had full intention to learn it, and use it like mad – and if Naruto could pull it off without fully being able to read or control chakra, Yasha should be able to much more easily.

Now that Yasha thought about it, that was bizarre. There was no way the blond originally nailed Kage Bunshin from just the scraps he _could_ read, before Yasha started educating him on literacy. His reading ability was practically in the toilet before Yasha had arrived in Konoha.

Maybe Iruka had cottoned on to Naruto's reading capacity and caught him up a bit in the original timeline?

Kakashi watched the two boys looking vaguely interested. So, it was true Yasha had been with Naruto yesterday night. Naruto must have mastered Kage Bunshin then – nothing short of impressive to nail a B-Rank down with only E-Ranks' precedence, in a couple of hours no less.

Probably due to the massive chakra stores he had; it gave Naruto a lot of retries. The cost of the technique was still there when Kakashi produced a clone, it just lowered with experience. So it wasn't a true 50% clone even for the jounin, the cost nibbled off about 0.3% of his chakra. At the start, during his practice as a genin, it had been about a 40%-capacity clone, with 20% wasted.

Yasha had turned back to the jounin and his gaze became thoughtful. Kakashi knew Yasha had yet to use his extensive KI release, although it was true any chakra release Yasha did seemed to release KI.

How he had achieved a twenty-metre sprint from a standing start in the space of a _second_ was beyond the jounin. Kakashi still didn't know how he did it – despite having three clones spread around keeping an eye on things, the burst of speed caught them all equally by surprise, and none had the Sharingan revealed to see the chakra movement, as he wasn't expecting that to be necessary for genin.

The jounin had confirmed there was no hand seals or apparent precursor involved. It appeared to be sheer speed, and likely a seal-less technique of some sort, not just chakra-enhanced muscles. He was fairly sure Yasha didn't have the capacity in his legs to propel himself by just pumping chakra into them… at least, not without serious overloading and damage.

It was possibly a body-flicker, but that with a child's legs like that, the chakra change would still at least be detectable. Although he wasn't sure about that, even under Sharingan he couldn't make out much of Yasha's legs at all, as his entire network was saturated with the insects.

Kakashi vaguely recalled working with an Aburame – unpleasant to see the insects with his Sharingan, but they didn't go into the capillaries of the chakra, just the largest vessels. But Yasha's insects did. It was turning his chakra network black, yet they were so small they weren't even interfering with the chakra flow.

That had been the fastest movement from a standing start, bar shunshin, that Kakashi had seen since Minato had been around. Although any jounin could pull off that speed, they didn't do it from a standing start, especially not without any seals.

"Frankly, having the Sharingan is a sign your life has been ruined," Yasha muttered to himself, and both Uchiha and implanted-Sharingan-bearer shot him pointed glares.

Sasuke dropped the insult and shot himself forward. Kakashi whipped out a kunai, parrying Sasuke's dual kunai and his sandals with the flat of a single blade easily.

Yasha sighed disinterestedly, watching the fray. He was fairly certain this Kakashi was a clone; Yasha had been surprised before but now he knew a bit more about how Kakashi thought – in essence, he veered on the side of caution, so he could afford to be constantly laid-back.

Made sense. With genin fights, the chances of a dispel-force hit was tiny. And he'd get more of a rise out of them by deliberately dispelling just when they thought they'd won. Yasha had a feeling Kakashi was using this fight to test their personalities as much as test their limits. It'd be what Yasha would do, after all.

He reached back into his pouch and took out a messy handful of shuriken, tossing them casually above the duo.

In the middle of a taijutsu battle, Kakashi and Sasuke's gazes both shot up to see a spread of at least twenty shuriken falling lazily downwards, spinning at all angles.

With only half a second to spare, the boy grabbed Kakashi, attempting to use him as a springboard to move out of range rapidly. Unfortunately Kakashi had the same idea and the punching turned into grappling before the shuriken landed on both of them.

One exploded into smoke and the other let out a hiss of pain, his tone dark. _"Yasha…"_

"Whoops. He's a clone," Yasha said without much apology in his voice.

Sasuke turned, two shuriken lightly embedded in his arms and one in his shoulder (Yasha hadn't tossed them very high). He was at a lost for what to say when he saw the _completely_ bored expression on Yasha's face.

After holding back, spluttering, his anger defused and he pulled the shuriken out of his hands and tossed them onto the ground, walking off in a huff.

Yasha unhurriedly picked the shuriken back up – didn't want to pay for new ones after all. Truth be told, he was about six years behind on his shuriken training by comparison to Sasuke. He'd be lucky if he could hit the target if he threw more than one at once. Or threw one at a moving target. Or if he was moving himself.

Yeah, shuriken were not his cup of tea right now, although he was rather interested in learning it; as well as kenjutsu, the art of a sword. He wouldn't even have to be that _good_ with a sword; just channel chakra through it and anyone he made contact with would be marked for death by his insects. He wasn't so confident about controlling the insects with long-range weapons.

He shouldn't be surprised Danzō had offered Root training on the day after the Uchiha massacre, really. Although it would be notably more difficult to keep someone in line without genjutsu nor seals to help you; even causing Yasha's chakra to be too distressed would place nearby Root in danger, and draw attention to the base.

The tongue seal was almost definitely not going to work. Plus, Yasha was a manipulator.

Danzō had apparently weighed those odds, but Yasha wouldn't have come to the same conclusion – he would have kept him at arm's length and under watch, if he was in Danzō's shoes – so the 180'd choice to give him training made him curious how the bandaged elder thought.

Being Kabuto knew of Yasha through Danzō, Orochimaru would know of him too – the Snake Sannin was probably keen on Yasha too, probably very keen. Sasuke was the last of two or three Uchiha, whereas Yasha was the _only one_ with Death Release, and he was fairly certain the bloodline didn't get inherited (it wouldn't make sense to, as only one person had it at any given time). It was bloodline rarity at its finest.

The Kyuubi _had_ said it was one of the cursed bloodlines, sealed away – but apparently not for good. He could see why the Rikudō Sennin would lock down his bloodline – death from touch or proximity plus KI off the scale plus genjutsu/seal proof… all it took was the carrier to have an ego problem and you had a dictator on your hands, a mental problem and you had an nigh-unstoppable massacre.

Yasha couldn't in all honesty say that it was a bad decision to seal his bloodline. Anyone with his bloodline and lack of self-control would be horrendous to deal with.

So far, Yasha hadn't responded to Danzō's offer. If he did take him up, he would have no shortage of teachers, the training would be brutal (and that was good; there was only so far self-motivation would push him), not to mention extra missions, learning darker skills befitting a black ops agent… if Yasha didn't have the Uchiha brats to worry about he would probably have taken him up on the offer.

Well, he had to think of the Uchiha brats, and Yasha didn't like the idea of someone knowing all his capabilities… not including the fact he would be constantly in a Root secluded base, where using the I'm-a-friend-of-a-Jinchūriki card as a restriction may not work.

Oh, Yasha could hide some tricks, but Kage Bunshin was both the ultimate stealth technique and the ultimate training-time-saver; he couldn't hide it or he'd be crippling his own training. And the second Yasha revealed he knew it, Kakashi, the Third Hokage, Danzō and Orochimaru would all know, and they'd put people watching him who could handle his cloning and observe all of the clones as well as the original.

Right now Yasha could drop off a Kage Bunshin transformed into a rock on the way to practice, and it could go do whatever, while if anyone was following him (from any source), they'd have to have doujutsu, and be able to use Kage Bunshin themselves too, to keep track of him.

Yasha liked to analyse every probability. And the fact was, the second he revealed he knew Kage Bunshin, his already dangerous reputation would double. Devious plus Kage Bunshin was a formidable combo. Hell, Naruto managed to get to halfway through Chuunin, months of Genin missions and the odd haywire mission (didn't he do some B-Ranks as a Genin? No mean feat), with nothing but that one technique and his prankster brand of deviousness. He had no Rasengan back then, and his taijutsu was in the toilet, and he was _still_ apparently good enough for the Chuunin exams.

Kage Bunshin was a card Yasha wanted to reveal to _absolutely no one _for as long as possible. He was already seen as suspicious and a serious risk to the village. Find out he had Kage Bunshin, and unless Naruto managed to lie and say he taught him the jutsu – which the blond wouldn't be able to lie about, he was pants at lying, plus he had no protection from mind techniques – judging from how Yasha could access his thoughts without the Kyuubi interfering originally – so everyone would know Yasha knew the jutsu for ages and hid it, and well…

The higher-ups took solace in the fact they could keep an eye on Yasha easily, even if they couldn't _control_ him easily.

With Kage Bunshin, he became a complete risk; unobservable, unpredictable, _and_ uncontrollable. They had an illusion of control over him, and Yasha could only guess how powerful people reacted to their observation being sidestepped…

Badly.

Even if they didn't throw him back into T&amp;I, anyone monitoring him would expect clones everywhere; most of the point of having the technique was lost.

"Found him!" came a distant yell from the forest.

Sasuke and Yasha both took off at varying jogging paces. They emerged on about two dozen Narutos being dispelled lazily by Kakashi.

"Are you the original then?" Yasha asked a Naruto that was standing to the side watching.

"Nah. He's climbing the tree, he's gonna throw something from the top, dattebayo," the clone responded with a grin.

The two glanced up, making out his bright orange jumpsuit climbing. Yasha nodded, a plan forming. "Right. Sasuke, Henge into Naruto and mix in there, use the element of surprise since your taijutsu is better. See if you can get a hit in on his feet or somewhere – just enough to dispel a clone. Naruto, Kakashi can use Replacement, so make sure you don't beat up lookalikes too easily. I'll watch for openings and do a sweeping grab for the bell again if he doesn't dispel."

Sasuke was inclined to blow Yasha off for how he treated him earlier, but he mulled the plan over briefly, and it looked good. If nothing else, Yasha was good at strategies. He made the Henge seal, pausing to listen as Yasha carried on, talking to Naruto's clone.

"Tell Naruto, make more clones, do a once-over for the perimeter, if Kakashi is a clone the original is probably observing us from the sidelines. Also, once I'm in there, I'll be moving very quickly and cutting anything in sight, so keep your original out of the way."

Sasuke pulled out two kunai and darted forward. '_He's a bit paranoid… but this is a jounin who had already used shadow clones. It's well justified, I suppose…'_ And then Kakashi's foot was shooting towards him and his thoughts were kept occupied.

Kakashi actually began to feel the strain. He was used to enemy surrounding him, and multiple attackers, but he'd never encountered a steady _stream_ of them. Ten minutes and Naruto would probably get a hit in; the clones had already learnt enough (by previous clones' memories) to become capable of dodging some of his attacks – although Kakashi was still restricting his speed.

The jounin kept an eye out for Yasha (that speed was really something), but in all honesty, it was only the stream of Narutos he could focus on. If Kakashi used anything that wasn't seal-less, Naruto would get a hit in; and as far as seal-less, that left only Replacement and a very draining, unstable Chidori. He could increase his speed, but it was a stream from _all_ directions. If he focused on one point, the rest would be left unfocused. The kid could really churn those clones out; anything short of a Kage would be hard-pressed to make this many.

That left KI release, weapons, and jumping for it.

At that point he glanced up and realised why the clones could pour in from all the sides; the damn _original_ was above him, spawning them all around. And a clone above, on the branch beside him, had just dropped several handfuls of shuriken. Yasha's shuriken skills from earlier had been passed on, it seemed…

And then a solid kick hit him in the side, snapping his attention back down and time slowing, even as his ears enhanced, picking up the near-soundless falling sounds of the shuriken above, his subconscious roughly predicting the paths toward him.

The kick wasn't serious, minor bruising, his stance was still good; but minor bruising meant he was dispelling – he grabbed the leg, cancelling the instinct to jam lightning chakra into it, time slowing as he felt his chakra network destabilise. A familiar smirk on the wrong face – Sasuke?

Sasuke had Henge'd into Naruto to be taken lightly. In that case – was Yasha…?

With a puff Kakashi's clone vanished, and several Narutos collided and messily piled into each other, before the shuriken peppered them from above, poofing half of them.

A chorus of groans echoed from the remaining clones as they looked around wildly.

"Shit," Yasha cursed. The test had been amusing before, but now their combined efforts were looking hopeless, it was getting irritating. Kage Bunshin, the solution and the problem to any outnumbering scenario. Kakashi's Bunshin could literally hold their own against tens of Naruto at once; and unless a good shot got in, it would be pointless.

They were underequipped. Even with the pre-existing traps, Kakashi could easily have found/disarmed them with clones and his tracking skills; and because Naruto's clones' taijutsu were too poor, it'd be too obvious if they forced Kakashi to move to a certain area.

Yasha admitted, he wasn't much help here. His genjutsu was only a short distraction for Kakashi, and his selection of ninjutsu was either E-Rank, kinjutsu, bloodline or secret.

He wasn't planning to use a technique from the forbidden scroll. He knew Water jutsu seals, but Yasha's chakra affinity could be anything, so that would probably be useless; besides, who knew how much he could actually convert, or side effects of badly changing chakra into a certain nature?

Even if he resurrected Kakashi's old teammates using Orochimaru and Kabuto as sacrifices it'd probably not go down well with Kakashi when he made the reanimations steal the bell.

Sasuke undid his Henge. Due to his Uchiha heritage and rule of cool he had somehow stayed out of the pileup and the shuriken, despite being right in the centre of the clones when Kakashi had dispelled.

Yasha felt a bit sadistically gleeful that he had managed to hit Sasuke with shuriken earlier – Naruto hadn't managed with his.

Then Kakashi's voice rang out. "Doton: Yomi Numa no Jutsu!" [Earth Release: Swamp of the Underworld]

Yasha heard the word 'Swamp' and reacted on instinct, jumping and grabbing the tree as the ground became a swamp in seconds. Sasuke was awkwardly still in the middle of the clearing, so he jumped and had to quickly throw a kunai with a rope upwards, snagging a branch and swinging to the tree as the whole clearing became oozy mud. But he was just too far away from the tree trunk, so the pendulum swing left him in the mud foot-deep about a foot away from the edge.

Yasha cringed at the swamp less than a metre below him, hugging the tree with some determination. _'Shit, I don't want to get dirty. Dirt sucks, weighs you down, throws off the balance and grip. And my shoes are nice and clean. No way am I wasting my life cleaning it.'_

He looked up at Naruto, thankfully the original blond in the trees above hadn't moved despite his disappointment at failing to catch Kakashi earlier. He was up fairly high, a good seven metres or so, jumping would probably have hurt him… oh crud, there was Kakashi, on the branch with him.

"Kakashi's up high!" Yasha called, cursing as he scurried higher up the trunk.

Sasuke looked up and tutted, wrapping the rope around one arm, flinging shuriken with his other hand. [The clone of?] Kakashi caught them casually whilst the original Naruto engaged him.

Yasha looked around for any more Kakashi clones. _'None in sight, but something had to have made that swamp. Unless he's just fast enough to get up there after making it… Damnit, Hatake's played on the environment to take away Naruto's one strength. If Naruto made a clone to help him attack now it'd be on a thinner end of the branch or not on the branch at all.'_

As Yasha finally twisted onto a branch, he spun to look up at Naruto immediately, just as the blond took a blunt hit and fell off.

"Clones!" Yasha called desperately, but Naruto's clones didn't make the swamp safer, although they did break the fall. The original got firmly stuck in there with the rest, all of them loudly complaining.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Make more clones and make a chain!" he barked at Naruto, just before the Kakashi on the branch above tossed Sasuke's shuriken back to him… through the kunai rope – instantly sending the Uchiha onto his butt into the swamp.

Sasuke was fuming, Yasha could tell that without looking. Sasuke would make it first priority to escape the swamp, other team members and enemy (if possible) ignored. Naruto had the attention span of a gnat, he'd focus on getting out too and Kakashi was more than capable of keeping both occupied with thrown weapons and putting both back in the swamp with fast kicks.

Yasha realised Kakashi had effectively made him the only competitor, since Yasha was the only one not entangled in the swamp. While Kakashi could easily attack him, he wasn't doing so. _'It's deliberate. He's trying to draw out some more of my techniques, get a feel for how I fight and think. Fine, I'll play, I'm not going into the swamp without a fight.'_

So, attack method.

Death Release would be a poor choice. He'd knock out both other team members at minimum, and they were closer targets than Kakashi anyway. Knockout in a swamp could be fatal, too, they could drown, suffocate or whatever term was applicable for a swamp.

Yasha's weapon skills were poor, he knew it. His mind techniques didn't control the recipient, and would leave Yasha completely defenceless. Water techniques would be underpowered and poorly controlled, since he'd only read of them earlier; it'd just make the swamp worse if he dropped a half-assed water technique on it, and he risked massive chakra loss. Assuming he even _could_ make any water-natured chakra.

There was no way to attack the Kakashi on the branches above him, and Yasha couldn't defend his teammates without getting bogged down. If Kakashi lobbed weapons back Yasha would end up taking them or falling off into the swamp; he simply wasn't fast enough.

Yasha disregarded the clone up high, and inspected the swamp edges, analysing the voice he had heard earlier. It was _that_ direction.

He pulled out two kunai, used a seal-less Henge and blasted forward towards the sound, zipping by a Kakashi, undoing the Henge and lobbing the nearest kunai at the jounin, who had Yasha in his blind spot, and from surprise was only just capable of blocking it with his palm.

Blood came out _'Blood! Blood! It's the real one!'_ and Yasha skidded along the grass, nearly slamming into a tree from his momentum. The brunette hurriedly made seals as he stood up, casting his D-Rank genjutsu as he dived back at his fastest Henge speed.

The lighter he made his body, the quicker he was, but the more magnified the damage was if it took a hit. But he couldn't lose the opportunity, not when he finally knew who was the real Kakashi.

Kakashi's eyes widened as leaves spun around him, his hands making the Kai seal as he jumped away. _'A genjutsu? I didn't feel any chakra entry! That was flawless!'_

Yasha gritted his teeth as Kakashi hopped back, the jounin clearly angling to get behind a tree. He was still dispelling the genjutsu, so he must have memorised the environment. _'Shit, he's moved away, and a bit to the right, I can't change direction – I'll have to go airborne and spin, shit…'_

And as Kakashi's vision restored, Yasha was two feet away, coming in lightning-fast. The boy was wincing as he spun, his right leg spinning to hit the jounin's face, straining the lightened tendons as his body twisted onto its side in mid-air, parallel to the ground.

_'He's damn fast, but he's on the wrong side for the bells… his speed technique is like an arrow from a bow, he can't change his direction.' _Kakashi's hand caught Yasha's leg by the shin and immediately the jounin did a double-take. _'What's up with his leg force? It's all off…'_

There was tiny cracking sounds his enhanced ears picked up and Kakashi's eye locked onto the leg with shock. _'His bone's fracturing?!'_

Yasha gritted his teeth, all conscious thought lost as pain overwhelmed his leg and shot up to his head. The Henge was too light, he'd magnified the damage too much warping away the bone density to lighten his weight…

Only adrenaline-induced focus let him carry out his single-second-long plan.

As Yasha wrapped around the jounin at just above belt height, his head on Kakashi's left and his waist on the jounin's rear right, his right hand reached inside Kakashi's pouch roughly, and his left hand extended – grabbing the bell from the jounin's belt, and yanking it firmly off, then he released the Henge, restoring his normal weight.

As the jounin released the leg, looking very shocked on the visible quarter of his face, Yasha finally let out the agonised scream that had been building up.

* * *

Kakashi had jumped backwards, so his center of balance was behind him. Yasha's kick had been so quick and the jounin's mind was foggy from genjutsu, he barely had time to rebalance and catch it.

Shocked by a genin's bone fracturing from the strength of his own kick – fracturing to the point Kakashi had _felt_ it disintegrating under his hand. He had lost precious tenths of a second, considering if it was a double-layered genjutsu, by which time Yasha had wrapped around nearly all three quarters of Kakashi's circumference – and the jounin was in no position to punch then, his right hand was occupied, and he didn't want to fracture Yasha's face by swinging backwards with his left hand.

A back kick wouldn't throw off Yasha's pivoting momentum, it'd only cause another injury, so no point using his legs. Kakashi couldn't jump away because his entire right, front and back had the kid wrapped around him, likewise the kid was blocking all possible Replacement for those sides. Which left his left side, which had a tree trunk blocking off, the one Kakashi had been attempting to jump behind.

At that point the kid's hand snaked to his bell, ripping it off. Kakashi looked down, very shocked, and he could see the pain on Yasha's face plain as day, and the grim determination… and suddenly he imagined orange-tinted goggles on the Uchiha-like face, and that very small margin to retrieve the bell with Kakashi's unoccupied left hand vanished in the flood of memories.

His ears, enhanced with chakra, rang loudly as he picked up every decibel of the ear-splitting scream. He winced as he released his grip on the leg, his eye picking up a faint wisp of chakra smoke coming off it.

* * *

Sasuke growled with anger, inches from his escape from the swamp when a dark blur shot past. _'That must have been Yasha,'_ he thought as he tossed two more shuriken at the Kakashi above him, using the opportunity to fling himself another kunai rope. As he yanked himself across on it, the Kakashi above him dispelled.

_'A clone then.' _He hefted himself free of the Kami-forsaken swamp, glancing at a still-struggling chain of Narutos in the swamp with a frown. _'I'd better free Naruto if Yasha doesn't need help first. His numbers are a good distract-'_

"AAAAAAGGGGHHHH!"

The guttural scream came from where Yasha had gone. Sasuke recoiled as the sound echoed through the trees and all the Narutos froze.

"Yasha?" one of them called uncertainly.

The Uchiha abandoned Naruto and darted around the swamp at full speed, dodging branches and cursing at the caked mud on his shoes. His center of balance was all over the place.

Kakashi stepped rapidly away from Yasha lest he be attacked unnecessarily by the other genin, but Yasha seemed oblivious, shoving his right hand behind him out of sight and his other fist tightening on the bell. Kakashi's focus was on the leg as it coloured dark red far too quickly.

"YASHA!" Naruto bellowed, and there was a spark of ugly chakra as hundreds of clones appeared, instantly filling the swamp and further, yanking the original out in seconds.

Yasha attempted to stay awake, he had to quell Naruto lest Kakashi get the blame for what was completely Yasha's fault… _but the pain, oh Kami._

Now the adrenaline was fading, it was at full force, and it numbed his entire leg… and all the way up his hip and higher. His vision had vanished into pain-induced white and he couldn't even tell what was an inch away from his eyes. Well, he was shutting them too hard, some part of him noted.

His teeth were gritted so hard cracking sounds were coming from his mouth. _'Might have to brush a bit more carefully tonight…'_ his delirious mind thought helpfully just before his consciousness lost its grip.

Sasuke skidded to a halt in front of Yasha, just behind Naruto, whose speed had been a blur even Kakashi had trouble following.

"Kakashi, you bastard! What did you do, dattebayo?!" Naruto screamed, running to Yasha.

Kakashi just watched, holding back a frown – part at Naruto's bond, and partly still confused what Yasha had done to cause such an injury. "He fractured his own leg kicking me, Naruto. And getting injured should be something a real genin is used to."

His bone had been so light Kakashi felt it _crumple_ under his palm. Solid bone _crumpling_ – and the bones in the legs were the thickest in the whole body – that was frankly ridiculous.

"I don't care!" Naruto screamed at him, grabbing Yasha's exposed fist, which relaxed to an open palm as his consciousness drifted off. The blond paused as he saw the bell, shocked again. He turned back to Kakashi, who showed him his empty belt, which made Naruto give a faint smile before immediately frowning back to concern.

Sasuke's eyes glinted at the sight of the bell undefended, and he stepped forward unconsciously before hesitating and stepping back. It was a blow to his pride to steal from someone seriously injured and out cold – and also a blow to his pride to go back to the Academy. '_How annoying…'_

Kakashi briefly considered ordering them to leave Yasha to fend for himself, but decided to see what would happen. Assuming Yasha woke up before the timer run out, things would get interesting.

Maybe Sasuke would steal the bell once Yasha was awake. It was certainly an interesting scenario; it'd tell Kakashi a lot about how the team functioned and if it _could_ be a team.

He spoke calmly, "As I said, I'm not going to try to steal the bell back. And you've got fifty minutes left."

Naruto suddenly realised Yasha was defenceless and glared at Sasuke, who just climbed up a tree and cut a long branch, chiselling at it rapidly with his kunai until one side was flat bark. Naruto looked at the legs, which were arranged in the way Yasha had collapsed, one bruising its way to a nasty black colour. _'What do I do? Yasha's hurt! He's hurt! Do I wrap up his leg? Do I leave it? Do I raise it?!'_

Naruto had never really lamented his own lack of medical knowledge, but he was seriously reconsidering that. He never liked studying books, but he'd put _hours_ of study in to get Yasha out of this sort of crap. No, _weeks_ in.

Sasuke cleared his throat as Naruto reached for the other brunette. "If it's a fracture, you shouldn't move it. His leg, right?" Since his pride had objections either way, he was going with what he felt was right. "Stretch it out and leave it flat, I'll set it so he can recover."

Naruto glanced back to Yasha, then back to Sasuke, analysing his expression and Kakashi couldn't help but frown at how indecisive the Uzumaki was. The bond with Yasha was too strong, and the blond lost all ability to think objectively when Yasha's health was in question.

_'Damn,' _Kakashi thought irritably,_ 'I'm going to really have to work on that, assuming they ever pass this test… that's a serious injury, there would be internal bleeding from bone shards, definitely, even if the outer skin hasn't been broken. Can his insects repair bones? And remove shards?'_

Sasuke sighed, tired of waiting after several seconds of Naruto's dithering. "I'm not going to attack him when he's out cold, idiot."

Naruto frowned, before stepping back, watching closely as Sasuke tied the makeshift splint onto Yasha's leg, using bandages to fix it firmly. It wasn't bleeding, but there was definitely an odd darkened discolouration and it was obviously disfigured – there was a concave part about 3 inches wide, in a bone that was normally straight. It had an indent of a full two centimetres; something Kakashi knew put someone out of action for weeks, possibly months, even if internal bleeding might not even be possible for Yasha. Kakashi thought he could even see his palm-print on the pushed-in bone.

Even if he hadn't been knocked out, Yasha would have had no chance of keeping the bell if one of the others went for it… unless of course, he activated his bloodline to such a degree the killing intent alone knocked out the other competitors.

The fact he still could knock out both of the other two competitors with minimal effort really meant Yasha should have won by default, assuming he could control the KI and it wasn't just subconsciously released – then it'd depend on how much his emotions were influenced by the battle.

So far he had given the appearance of taking the test lightly – which was partly why Kakashi had been shocked by his sudden appearance while he was busy enforcing the swamp's chakra. He had been expecting Yasha to stick to the sidelines, waiting for his sure-fire opportunity at minimal risk to himself – or pull out a long-range attack to protect the team members somehow, when Kakashi's shuriken-flinging clone put him on the spot.

But Yasha defied expectations, completely. He had ignored both Naruto and Sasuke's predicaments, ignored the fact there was a clone with clear line of sight that could pelt him with shuriken, and in seconds had attacked the real Kakashi. To ignore even Naruto and dive for a sudden attack, at such a speed that the jounin's clone dispelling would have only jarred the original from the blindside attack even more.

And Kakashi didn't expect him to have so little control over his own shunshin or whatever technique it was that he skidded past his target… or to suddenly switch from carefree/apathetic to apparently taking it serious enough to endure a terrible injury.

And cast a genjutsu which consequently removed the possibility of Kawarimi, ensuring he could get within range. Then steal the bell while he blanked out the pain from his leg.

Fracturing his own leg to steal a bell before he even made genin. Kakashi knew _chuunin_ who couldn't endure the risk of that much pain. It was a sacrificial move… it would be impressive if Kakashi knew it was for his team, but Yasha had abandoned them.

Although Kakashi's release of the genjutsu Yasha threw had dispelled the shadow clone's connection, leaving his teammates completely safe – something the jounin had been too thrown to think about at the time. When he was dispelling, he was only concerned about getting the genjutsu off quickly before Yasha was on top of him.

Yasha had some alarmingly strong qualities that high-ranking ninja had. High KI, pain tolerance, goal over own safety, and the ability to blind-side a jounin, then detain him long enough to achieve his goal.

Okay, in reality the entire thing had taken less than ten seconds. Detaining a jounin ten seconds wasn't that impressive. Naruto could probably pull that off… well, he did, with his clone strategy.

But the key thing was how unpredictable Yasha had been. Just like when he had stolen the bell from Kakashi's clone at the start. In a blink of an eye, without any indicator, he flicked from boring, stance-less and barely involved, to completely focused, near-perfectly executed action.

All while pulling off a weird shunshin that looked self-invented. Kakashi had entertained the idea it had been an environmental genjutsu, but the excessive damage Yasha had taken disproved that. While the genjutsu he pulled off was perfectly controlled, it was a very obvious change to perception, and looked like a D-Rank. Kakashi hadn't let it stay long enough to fully identify which, though.

Yasha's invented body-flicker was definitely seal-less. Was his bloodline involved somehow? Did the insects peel away his bone density temporarily? No, that didn't seem right. Surely if the insects were changing the bone's properties, they'd repair or revert it once Yasha drifted off to dreamland.

What was more impressive was Yasha had managed to work around his own limitation – namely, that chakra expelling meant broadcasting his presence. Even civilians and animals sensed KI. Yasha had developed a way of fighting that was pretty much instantaneous, negating the handicap entirely. He was on top of the enemy before they felt the KI.

Going from completely inactive to concentrated, pinpoint strategy in milliseconds. Something only someone with a detached mindset would be able to pull off this well.

There was no doubt it was impressive, but abandoning his two team members was a fail. Right now, if neither of the other members acted to steal the bell and Yasha 'won', it would be a team fail to Kakashi.

Sasuke might get a pass for helping his teammate, but the reasoning probably wasn't for the mission, it was for his pride. Kakashi could read him like a book, well familiar with the Uchiha attitude problem. It was becoming a topic of interest in ANBU, particularly when Yūrei – Kakashi winced – had intervened and calmed things down while getting himself ousted for it.

Still, the walking Uchiha ego might attempt to steal the bell later once Yasha had a shot at fighting back. Or at escaping. Although with an injury like that, it'd depend on Yasha's regenerative ability, since the KI release would flatten Sasuke with ease if it came to that, but he wouldn't be moving anywhere without it. If Sasuke fought Yasha, he wasn't going to win, whether Yasha was on his back or not.

Naruto would never steal it from the person whose house he lived in, and who he held in great respect.

So that was most definitely that. A team fail.

Even though Yasha had been the first genin hopeful that had actually take the bell from Kakashi, he had blanked his teammates and caused himself injury to do so.

The jounin was slowly realising it was his own fault. It had to be, he was a jounin, overpowering an inexperienced genin should be effortless. Instead, Kakashi had become sloppy. He knew Yasha had a faux-body-flicker technique, yet he let him hide in a blind spot.

The jounin had tried to predict someone who manipulated everyone's ideas about him, and Yasha had made him guess wrong.

If he had his Sharingan out (he was disinclined to do that as Sasuke might be upset, ruining the team balance), then Yasha would have been predictable.

The body-flicker speed would have been easily tracked – although not completely predicted; Yasha had swarms to cover up his chakra. The kunai's path would be tracked and avoided, which meant the blood would never had given the clue away that it was the original, which would mean Yasha would be slower to follow up his attack on what he thought could be a clone.

Assuming Yasha went for Kakashi anyway, the genjutsu would be shrugged off without a seal, because no genjutsu bar one from a Sharingan could fool a Sharingan eye – it perceived chakra flow itself; only those experienced with what the Sharingan saw could impersonate that in a genjutsu.

The speed of Yasha's rush toward him would be tracked again, the kick avoided… or perhaps still blocked, since Yasha's shunshin weaknesses may have been unapparent. His chakra was invisible thanks to the insects, weaknesses and skipped-over hand seals included.

There were techniques with fifty-odd hand seals, but given experience and practice, not to mention high levels of chakra control, the user's body memorised them, reducing the seals to less and less for the same technique. The technique's cost was generally slightly higher because of the skips, but you could pull out a fifty-odd-seals high-rank jutsu in two seconds instead of twenty, and that was key in a battle; finding a good balance between chakra usage and catching the opponent off guard.

Untrained Sharingan users couldn't even match the number of hand seals done invisibly by the body. It made blindly copying jutsu a bad idea.

If someone had done a fifty-odd-seal technique with only three seals and Kakashi had duplicated it, the Sharingan would force all fifty out of Kakashi's body in a very short period, which was nothing short of _completely_ exhausting. Kakashi had found that out the hard way early on and had to work on his chakra control for a good while afterwards.

Anyway, back to the scenario… Yasha had been out for thirty-four minutes, and Naruto was dithering nervously, staring at Sasuke and Kakashi with suspicion, and at Yasha with a very panicky concerned look.

Sasuke had just sat himself down a few body lengths from Yasha and waited, idly pulling up the grass. Clearly no one was going to steal the bell while Yasha was unconscious – out of respect for his accomplishment, or for his injury, or out of personal morals, or just pride – the reason would remain to be seen after he woke up.

And now there were roughly fourteen minutes left until the bell rang. Kakashi planned to wake Yasha and/or wind back the clock on the sly – it would say nothing about Yasha's motives or their dynamic as a team to let the clock run down – and it felt like poor taste to fail the other two for poor teamwork after they waited for another team member's recovery.

They did do teamwork, but it could just have been Yasha manipulating the two. Hell, he was unconscious and both other boys had frozen into waiting on him, without him having to say a word. At least Naruto hadn't attacked Kakashi needlessly on his arrival – Kakashi would have to put him down ruthlessly and told in no uncertain terms losing control due to emotions was _completely_ unacceptable for an ninja.

Then Yasha finally stirred. "Urgh… Naruto?"

"Yasha!" Naruto was kneeled by his side in an instant, inspecting his winced expression.

"Do I still…?" Yasha began to ask in a stronger voice, trailing off as he clenched his fist and brought it back to his eyes. He still had the bell. "Heh. How much time until noon, sensei?"

"About twelve minutes." Kakashi didn't need to check his watch for that. Timekeeping without giveaway movement was key practice for any ninja who had to observe stealthily. "Unless one of them takes it off you, you'll be the only one to pass."

Yasha grimaced, even though he couldn't really feel anything in his leg any more. He knew he needed the genin mission pay for the Uchiha kiddies. Otherwise Yasha'd give the bell to Naruto in a heartbeat; since he knew there was an upcoming battle of "Naruto &amp; Kyuubi vs Ichibi"… change that to "Yasha vs Ichibi"? No way.

On the other hand (Yasha found himself considering the other point of view against his friend on automatic), Naruto had a terribly stunted skill set that relied completely on sheer stamina and ridiculously large reserves. His only method of fighting would be sheer numbers and hoping his unpredictability was up to par.

If an enemy turned up, Naruto would rush him head on, rank not even considered. Kakashi had demonstrated how just someone with decent taijutsu form could hold his own against _hordes_ of Naruto. If someone were to rush Naruto, not vice versa, the brat would die, because his clones' taijutsu was poor, defence or attack. If he had time to clone, the clones would grant him barely a couple of seconds reprieve, which simply wasn't enough.

And if a genjutsu graced the Uzumaki he'd frankly be oblivious to it.

Naruto's only method of protecting himself from ninjutsu defences was clone blockades or the environment, the latter of which any ninja worth their salt would consider before moving in anyway, and the former defeated with minimal effort.

All in all, he was a big risk. Yasha wouldn't feel comfortable sending him on the field with an unknown team.

Then there was Sasuke, who was talented in all the areas Naruto sucked at, but had the problem of pride, a big killer; Kami help him once he awoke Sharingan and his ego got even worse. And imagine what would happen once Orochimaru gave him his love bite. Besides, Yasha owed it to Itachi to keep an eye on him. His older brother could had easily killed him back on massacre night.

Finally, if Yasha threw the bell so no one passed, he'd miss out on keeping the Uchiha brats fed and housed.

While genin Naruto would happily give all his mission pay to Yasha, Sasuke wouldn't even consider it; and Yasha had no reasoning that would convince him to, without revealing the kids, and their origin.

"Well, shit, son," he muttered.

* * *

Kakashi had noticed the grimace that crossed Yasha's face as soon as Kakashi said 'he would pass' –not when Kakashi said, 'if no one attacked him'. Did he not want to pass?

Yasha's follow-up thoughtful scowl and then a dismissive vulgar phrase cemented that. '_What a paradoxical kid… had talent flowing out of his ears, literally __**ruins**__ his leg to get the bell, yet immediately doesn't want it.'_

"Shit," Yasha cursed loudly, throwing his hands up and wincing at the movement in his leg.

"What's up, Yasha, are you hurt, dattebayo?" Naruto asked, concern having never faded from his face.

"Well, yes, doofus." Yasha donked him lightly over the head, gaining an immediate pout. "That's not the point."

He sighed heavily, and Kakashi perked up inwardly. He smelled an explanation, which was just what he needed to understand the enigma.

"I have a reason to protect both of you two, and I don't want to risk you dying. I don't want to set your ninja careers back, but I don't want to push you too far."

"Both of us?" Sasuke repeated in surprise.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun. One of the members of your family, on _that day_, asked me to look after you."

Sasuke's jaw dropped and his stoic look slipped off his face like a roof tile during an earthquake. Naruto looked perturbed.

Yasha was struggling to say something convincing for Sasuke, especially in front of the jounin. He didn't even want a _whisper_ of a possibility of extra kids or hidden Uchiha things going near Kakashi's elite mind. The manipulator had already discarded some phrases; 'you'll regret it later' sounded like a threat, 'other people who need the funds would be inconvenienced' used a plural. And without giving a reason that was something Uchiha or gaining power, Sasuke would disregard it.

Publicly Yasha was only taking care of Naruto, and anyway that wasn't a good argument due to Konoha's orphan fund kicking in when Yasha ran out of cash. The orphan funding wouldn't be enough to support the Uchiha kids, much less maintain two houses, but it'd keep the two pre-genin alive at their place on the staple basics.

As it was, D-Rank pay made things tight; the fact Yasha would get access to Naruto's money if the blond had passed as well had originally been his plan. Because Naruto incurred naturally higher prices, he trusted Yasha with the shopping, and thus indirectly with his money – it wouldn't take much to convince him to hand over nearly all of it.

"…Wait, what?" Sasuke interrupted, his tone flat. "Okay, stop."

He held up his hand quickly, glaring at Yasha with disbelief. _'Someone asked him to look after me? Who would do that? Tou-san? No… then, Kaa-san? Why would they tell __**him**__? …Unless Yasha's lying…'_

His glare intensified, but even as he opened his mouth to call Yasha out, he hesitated. He knew it made little sense for Yasha to antagonise him while defenceless, and telling a lie like that was a low blow – not to mention, it was a reason Yasha would give him the bell.

Sasuke had seen him in the compound occasionally in the weeks before, babysitting. So it wasn't _completely_ implausible that he was around at the time.

So Sasuke immediately cut away at his statement. "Who _specifically_ told you to watch out for me? Second, what do you know about the Sharingan? Third, how did you even _survive_ that day even _if_ you were there? Fourth, why do you think you can predict me? Fifth, why do you think I'll even accept the bell if you gave it to me?"

Yasha acknowledged the second question was a good one. And the fifth one hadn't crossed his mind. He was so caught up in possible actions he had ignored reactions. He concentrated on what he could do, not on what the other kids would have accepted.

With Sasuke's pride and Naruto's love/ego, they'd probably both refuse any offer unless he worded it properly. Manipulation was all about the wording.

He sighed and began to respond, thinking up plausible excuses. "The first one… I can't tell you, what happened in that night is an S-Rank secret, the Hokage forbade me. Which is why I only told you something no one outside from you could benefit from knowing. Third, I survived because Itachi…" Sasuke flinched at the name. "…was only attacking the Uchiha. My bloodline makes it very obvious I'm not a Uchiha to someone with doujutsu.

"And finally, second, I know the Sharingan is heavily based on the brain's chemical balances. Extreme fear of death or trauma will awaken it. And anyone who awakens it tends to awaken mental problems, as well, including superiority complexes. Uchiha Madara is supposedly the most powerful Uchiha, and was also the most insane. And Itachi continues the trend."

"Itachi was… insane?" Sasuke repeated thoughtfully. It made sense… the Mangekyō awoken, he gets a huge personality change, and then days later, he kills everyone in his clan trying to prove his superiority. It was pretty much as insane as you get.

"_Driven_ insane by his bloodline. He wasn't insane originally, but how can you slaughter your own family without having serious mental issues?"

Kakashi was silently listening, half-wondering if Yasha was genuinely well-informed and worked it out, or just trying to manipulate.

Or just stalling until noon. Nah, that seemed unlikely. The fallout from lying about the massacre to buy time would be immense. Someone as smart as Yasha would be able to come up with a better staller.

"Uchiha pride. The same thing you have a lot of…" Yasha pointed at Sasuke vaguely, "drives you insane, arrogant, reckless, obsessive. You seek Sharingan, you're just seeking trauma really. It's fine if you have a handle on your pride, but really… trauma causes negative brain reactions and grants better Sharingan, which has a large optic connection and the chakra sits directly by the brain. The correlation is obvious."

"Hn," Sasuke replied noncommittally, too thrown by the put-down of his clan's exalted doujutsu and the new theories to know how to respond, his mind flashing back to what Itachi said. _'To awaken Mangekyō, kill your closest friend…'_

It made so much _sense_ the way Yasha had explained it. That nagging feeling Yasha knew Itachi's weaknesses had been confirmed – he had not only met Itachi and presumably fought him, but he gave theories that _completely_ correlated with Mangekyō.

No non-Uchiha knew of Mangekyō, they couldn't read the Uchiha Stone Tablet, so Yasha had made the theories without knowing the self-induced-trauma requirement of the higher levels… Which meant, it was most likely complete truth.

His pride was kicking and screaming at the idea of a mental instability, but arguing out of pride would be a self-defeating response – Sasuke was smart enough to see that.

But that half-truth about S-Rank secrets was a load of rubbish. If Yasha could say someone talked to him that night and what they said, he could say who it was.

Yasha sighed. "And as for fourthly… why I can predict you? I can predict anyone. Naruto knows about that."

Sasuke turned his gaze to Naruto, who frowned. "Yeah, he's _really_ good at predicting people. And manip-" the blond cut off when Yasha quickly held up his hand, shaking his head slightly.

If Sasuke was wary of his ability to manipulate, he'd become much harder to reach. Naruto trusted and formed bonds too easily, so he could know that anyway, but Sasuke was the complete opposite. You needed everything you could to reach him.

"And then Naruto, your style of fighting has no good defence. It's a huge risk to put you out there." Yasha fixed him with a concerned look, although he wasn't really emotionally involved right now, too busy focusing on logic. "If someone hits you with genjutsu or throws a tidal wave ninjutsu at you, all you can do is take it and hope you survive."

Naruto scowled. He didn't like to admit his weaknesses, especially not in front of Sasuke-teme, but after months of knowing Yasha's teaching style, he knew his friend was scathingly blunt about weaknesses.

Yasha gestured at the Uchiha. "On the other hand, if I let Sasuke, who is prepared in all but attitude pass… I'll be short of funds, and he'll probably die soon after awaking Sharingan from overestimating himself."

Sasuke scowled, but stayed silent, waiting for Yasha to make his point.

"So here's the plan, folks!" Yasha quickly distracted with fake cheer, having finally worked out a way to get out of this. A solution that would make everyone happy. "I go ahead and pass. I get trained as a genin by whoever, maybe Scarecrow over there. I then train you two with what I get taught."

The two boys' frowns turned to surprise, and he went on, turning to Naruto, "I can carry on supporting you with my mission pay… and no doubt you won't have funding problems, Sasuke, so whatever I learn as a genin, I'll just teach to you guys. No one risks their untimely untrained demise but me, I don't feel guilty for letting them risk it either, and you both become genin in all but name. In fact, you're closer to chuunin before your next Academy test re-sit."

A few seconds of silence passed.

"Besides," Yasha added morbidly, "it's not like there's a person you're trying to impress with doing it. No need to rush. We're all orphans. It just depends whether you want the rank, or the skill."

Another few seconds of silence passed, the atmosphere heavy.

"Okay, Yasha," Naruto agreed easily, always too trusting. "If I get training like a genin, it's all the same. I'll become Hokage, dattebayo!"

Sasuke hummed thoughtfully. Genin-level training, or a rank… well, in terms of power, they were pretty much equal. But with Yasha's suggestion, he wouldn't have to steal the bell and gain a ninja rank by stealing someone else's achievement. Having that hanging over his head… constantly smearing his pride… no. He smirked. "Hmm… pah. I couldn't take the bell off you anyway. My _pride_ wouldn't allow it." He smirked. "I'll need that training until I make genin, though."

"Yeah, of course. We're in this together." Yasha shot his hand into the air, bell firmly tucked into it.

As if on cue, or oddly well-timed, the alarm clock rang in the distance – it was noon.

Kakashi numbly replayed the scene in his head. Yasha had talked both other boys (even _Sasuke_) into _giving_ him the bell, and put them all in for training sessions together, at his own expense.

He had somehow grouped the three together by words, despite their scenario where they were all against each other, in a matter of minutes. And both Naruto and Sasuke were _pleased_ by the outcome. Odd, one had a get-Hokage-quick goal and the other was a get-power-quick goal, yet both their resolves to gain genin rank had been defused.

How?! In _twelve minutes?!_

Yasha was a damn _genius_ when it came to manipulating people. Kakashi would have no clue how he would have handled stopping Sasuke from doing something that he thought would give him power. Yet there it was – Yasha had scrapped the genin rank and position and just offered it outside Kakashi's rules.

Outside his rules?

Yes… That was it. That was how he had done it: Yasha had broken a unwritten rule so hidden even Kakashi hadn't thought of it – the rule that passing this test was the only way to gain the benefits of genin position.

But Yasha just promised genin _training_, and that was what Sasuke really wanted. Training was more important than rank to Sasuke; he'd be an eternal genin or even eternal Academy student provided he also had the _skills_ of an elite assassin capable of killing Itachi five times over.

Naruto's enthusiasm for a quick promotion up the ranks had been defused by Yasha's blunt statement about his weaknesses, by Yasha's concern for his wellbeing, and by the fact it was obvious Yasha was a prodigy to most people (Kakashi now included). Any protests from Naruto were defused by his trust in Yasha's intelligence and his ability to read people.

Sasuke had been manipulated by a taste of Itachi-relevant knowledge about Sharingan, and Naruto had been manipulated by Yasha just playing on their plain love/concern/trust relationship to point out training was better than a premature rank – then the Uzumaki likewise accepted genin training as equal.

Yasha was _scary_ smart. Scary. Kakashi had worked with Nara before, and often Shikaku since the man was Jounin Commander – and his intelligence had been scary just the same way.

Yasha had outwitted all three other people in this clearing, in a way that made them happy about the outcome, yet ultimately awarded just _him_ the rank of genin.

Outwitting three people with a mind foggy from pain. In twelve minutes.

**_Damn._**

Kakashi still couldn't quite wrap his head around it, even though it had happened right in front of him. It was like the times he watched Shikaku play shōgi – just regular moves with no clear pattern and suddenly Shikaku had them cornered, and yet Kakashi couldn't see it coming until it was inevitable.

But one thing Kakashi did know – Yasha had opted to break a rule and refused to abandon the two other team members. All three fought together to achieve a goal, and when set at odds, still worked together and compromised without hostility.

And that counted as teamwork in Hatake Kakashi's book.

* * *

But something told him it wasn't exactly what he wanted. Yasha had destroyed the reason for them fighting, causing them to compromise, true, but that wasn't the same as picking the team over the mission.

In a scenario where a teammate was captured, and it was a matter of saving him from the enemy or completing the mission, Yasha's solution of 'we'll compromise the team win for individual desires' wouldn't apply. If it _was_ applied, it would mean leaving the team behind, with the team happy about being captured (because they knew the mission would be a success).

Sure, that should be an _option_, better that than a war, but willingly abandoning the team could _not_ be a default. And definitely could not be the way they passed their genin test.

So, time to kill that solution with some made-up bull. If he put them against each other in a way there was no way to slide around it, Yasha would be forced to show his true attitude about the others…

"Guys, I'm sorry to tell you this," Kakashi said in a deliberately chipper voice, "but genin training is kept confidential. Since it's taught by a jounin, it will contain secrets of a jounin-level, and jounin are the main line of attack and defence for Konoha against other villages. You can't discuss it with non-qualified ninja, otherwise if an enemy jounin captured you, they'd have knowledge on Konoha that could cripple it. I'll give you guys five extra minutes to work out who gets the bell, and I still won't take it from any of you."

The three looked at each other, frowning.

"Screw that." Yasha threw the bell aside with a deft toss of his wrist, and all other eyes watched it bounce across the grass while the brunette laid back down. "If that's how Konoha tests genin I'm moving to Kumo."

Sasuke frowned in thought, eyes fixed on the glinting metal. He wanted that bell. He wanted that training. But even as he began to stand up, he frowned. Not like this, not gaining power while trampling others like Itachi had. He wasn't going to awaken Mangekyō at the expense of others, so why do essentially the same to get genin? Degrade to Itachi's insane obsession for power?

But did he really want to be stopped here?

"I'm not taking it from you, Yasha-kun. You put the most effort in and you even busted up your leg, dattebayo!" Naruto declared firmly. "I'm not going to take it even if you won't."

"To Kumo it is!" Yasha announced with another arm pump.

Kakashi ignored the faux-disloyalty and put his attention on Sasuke, who was frowning harder since Naruto's proclamation. He was the loose cannon here; Naruto would be true to his word, perhaps even if he hadn't have the bond with Yasha – it wasn't a display of Hokage-rank-worthy strength to gain a genin promotion by picking up a bell, and that was all that factored into Naruto's decision-making skills. Unlike Sasuke, Naruto's primary focus was still moving up the ranks, but the blond wanted to prove himself by it; getting something this easily wouldn't do.

Kakashi recalled Naruto's reaction when he heard about the survival test, and held back rolling his eyes. He had done a 180 from 'oh no I have to do more work to get genin' to 'I don't want genin unless I have to work for it'. He would clearly be a sucker for any challenge that proved worthiness of a higher rank.

Sasuke was still in thought two minutes later – his face kept twitching as he thought it over. Yasha had just tucked his hands behind his head and looked like he was going to sleep, much to Kakashi's bemusement.

"There's still another option, Kakashi-san," Yasha offered.

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow in question, and Yasha fumbled underneath him. "Pass me a kunai, Naruto-kun."

Naruto pulled out one (of his three) and gave it to Yasha without even thinking about it. Yasha held it, deftly spinning it into his palm. "Sasuke, can you do a Katon: Great Fireball?"

"Sure," Sasuke half-scoffed. Kakashi felt a bit stunned at that realisation – a genin doing a technique like that?

"Great. Kakashi-san, can you pass all three of us? Sasuke is well-rounded, Naruto has good stamina and a jounin-rank jutsu, and I have a scary bloodline. So, pretty please?"

Yasha pulled out Kakashi's Icha Icha book from under him, making the jounin jolt. "On three then. One, two…"

At that moment, as the dark glint appeared in Yasha's eye, Kakashi knew this boy was going to be trouble.

* * *

Kakashi ran his hand over his own palm imprint, the medical jutsu glowing soft green. The blood had collected in the imprint, making a fairly accurate representation of his gloves and his fingers. It was unnerving, like marking with a hot iron, except by crushing it.

"He has a comminute hairline fracture across the tibia and fibula bones," he guessed, mostly from sight. The jutsu was barely telling him anything. Like a magnet repelling another, it was bouncing off before it penetrated more than a couple of millimetres.

"Is that bad?"

Kakashi hummed. "Depends. Yasha is capable of healing himself. But if he can't do it, there's little the medical teams can do for him. He'd be out of action for months, at the least." Kakashi leant back onto his ankles, giving the other two boys a serious look. "As a team, you should be aware of each other's weaknesses. Yasha has a very strong one: medical techniques don't work on him, not even diagnosis. If he gets knocked out with a serious injury, he will most likely bleed out."

Naruto's face paled and Sasuke frowned. "But he _can_ heal himself?" the Uchiha pressed.

"Yes. Yasha has an usual bloodline that controls swarms of carnivorous insects. They sit inside his chakra system. They can disintegrate all matter, and heal him. However, they will attack him as well if he's not careful. They resist the medical techniques, and protect him when he's asleep. If you manage to kill Yasha, chances are the insects will release from his body and kill you."

Yasha had his eyes closed, wincing, but not from pain. Having his weaknesses and skills revealed was painful in and of itself – each sentence stripping away his power. It was necessary, if nothing else they needed to know he couldn't heal up, but it was still annoying.

"Point is, Yasha has to heal his own injuries. If he can't, then the medics most likely can't either. They could only hook him up to IVs and wait for him to regain consciousness. If his insects can't heal them either, he's just going to have to live with the injury." The jounin's eye shifted back to the injured boy. "True enough, Yasha?"

"Yep," Yasha forced out begrudgingly.

"The carnivorous insects are extremely deadly, and all people react to it. At any point Yasha uses chakra, he releases killer intent, which is more of the disturbed insects in his chakra system wanting to chew everyone to shreds than Yasha's actual desire to kill someone."

"So that's why he feels dangerous all the time!" Sasuke realised, faintly smiling as the mystery was revealed.

Kakashi's eye shot to him. Interesting, so he _had_ picked up on it. Odd, Yasha's relationships with his classmates were pretty good all-around. "Exactly. So while Yasha would be great at assassination, he would be terrible at infiltration."

_'Sure, unless I figure out how to not use chakra while infiltrating, or how to get my insects to stop being so damn obvious with their bloodthirstiness.'_ Yasha sighed wistfully, hardening his resolve. "Well, I guess I have to try healing it."

He put his hands together in a Ram seal, and gritted his teeth as the pain restarted, even more agonising than before, but in a much smaller area. He didn't want to drag it out, but the pain was that type that made you want to whimper.

…and like _hell_ was he going to whimper in front of people he had a duty to be around for the next few years or so.

His team watched in morbid fascination as the red discoloured further, the black taking over it like a plague. Slowly the bones started to reform underneath the skin, pushing it back up to its normal size, a sensation that was agonising… and tingly. There was obviously no nerves inside the bones, but _around_ them was another matter – there you got the entire nervous system set from the deep throbbing nerves to paper cuts. Yasha kept the pace consistent as his pain fluctuated between tingly painful and fallout _agonising, _pausing whenever he felt himself go light-headed and a bit out-of-body floaty feeling.

It took Yasha a few minutes to regenerate, enough to make him rather certain that bone damage wasn't something to allow in real battle. He couldn't pause for _ten seconds_ in battle, even with teammates and a good hiding spot.

Come S-Rank, you couldn't pause for _two_ seconds in battle. Yasha wasn't sure if he was looking forward to becoming S-Rank. He liked the idea of scaring everyone off, but it was far harder to look cool while you actually got gritty with the battling. Even blood splatters could only go so far to enhance your image.

Still, Yasha was not impressed with how well he managed to fend off Kakashi, a jounin-level. When Orochimaru invaded there'd be enemy jounin flying in all directions. Orochy would have told them about Yasha being a KI beacon, which meant using his bloodline was out the window unless he wanted to risk outnumbering and kidnapping.

He needed to up his game, and quick, if he wanted to be able to pull off jounin-level techniques by invasion time. That was only half a year away.

There was also the chance of Akatsuki wanting to goad Naruto by waving his kidnapped friend as bait. So that meant there'd be super-S-Rank ninja after Yasha, too.

Cringe. It was one thing after another.

But time to focus on the present. His leg was pretty much healed, and Kakashi had hidden his book after using some jounin speed to steal it out of Yasha's hand. Not a big surprise, and Yasha hardly expected him to compliment the idea of destroying Icha Icha.

Meanwhile, Sasuke was tentative about him, since Yasha had to clam up about the exact identity of the Uchiha, which made his claim to have heard from one on the massacre night dubious at best. Yasha figured Sasuke must know better than to think he was lying, but Sasuke would also know that being unspecific wasn't actually necessary at all and the Hokage excuse was bull.

But, to call out the excuse without knowing _why_ Yasha needed to make up an excuse in the first place would make things awkward and bring him no closer to the truth.

So, Sasuke would probably keep it in the back of his mind until he got to know Yasha well enough to figure out if he was lying, and then confront him once he was sure Yasha wouldn't push him away for knowing it. Yasha could probably postpone, but only so far…

When Yasha finally finished regenerating, he looked down, and concluded the insects were geniuses at regeneration. There was clearly some sort of hive memory going on – they didn't just make an anthill, they could tape it up. No bone shards in sight, no excess blood, no ruined chakra capillaries. The whole thing had come back completely like it was.

"I'm good," he sighed, testing his weight and rotating his ankle.

"Impressive," Kakashi murmured. That sort of regeneration was surprisingly adaptive. Even the best Aburame's kikaichu couldn't rebuild _everything_.

But then their insects weren't small enough to interfere on a cellular level. But it must not have taken much brainpower for Yasha to do it… that would require superhuman levels of accuracy. He just flooded chakra to the spot, and the insects repaired. _'That's odd, actually. Didn't his insects attack him before? So when they are outside the body, they destroy it, and when they are inside, they repair it? What a bizarre contrast. Wouldn't the insects inside prevent the ones outside from attacking? Or is there some other unknown factor?'_

At any rate, now the three were a real genin team, albeit very untraditional, Kakashi had all the time in the world to monitor the three of them – the Tsukuyomi victim Uchiha Sasuke, the manipulator and Death Release carrier Yasha, and the hopelessly?-manipulated Jinchūriki Uzumaki Naruto.

"Okay, brats," Kakashi said with a smile, turning their attention to him. "Since you've all picked to help your team instead of the mission, you all pass."

Damn it, he really wanted to throw some scary genjutsu at them and act like they failed, but there was just no opportunity in the lovey-dovey "caring on their fallen teammate" mood.

"YATTTTTAAAA!" Naruto whooped, jumping in the air with a double fist pump, all his worry forgotten as if it were never there.

"Yay," Yasha droned, with a very slow fist pump.

Sasuke just smirked.

"You brats meet me back here tomorrow. 6AM or whatever." Kakashi body-flickered away, while a hidden clone knelt to listen.

Naruto turned to Yasha, grinning. "That means I get Ichiraku ramen tonight, ne, ne?!"

"No way, man! I bought you that yesterday!" Yasha protested, accepting Sasuke's hand to help him up, and experimentally trying his leg. Healed perfectly. "How about we go someplace Sasuke wants. Us two know each other well enough, and we're a team, we need to find out about him."

"Oh. Right." Naruto turned to Sasuke, a bit surprised at the suggestion.

Sasuke blinked, inwardly in full cringe mode. He didn't want to socialise. He needed to train… he had stuff to do. You know, training stuff. On his own. The team wouldn't be there when he fought Itachi, he shouldn't waste time on them… but on the other hand…

Looking at Yasha, Sasuke sighed. _'I better work out why he can analyse people, what he knows about Itachi. He did offer to help me, when I was in the hospital. And Naruto could work as a shield now he has a ton of clones.'_

"He sighed. That means he's coming, unwillingly, but he will take one for the team."

"Hey, I didn't say that!" Sasuke protested (unconvincingly).

"I still can't believe we're a team," Yasha muttered.

"I can't believe you don't want to eat ramen just because we had it yesterday," Naruto rebuked him.

"I can't believe it's not butter."

"What?"

"What?"

* * *

**AN:** What?


	34. Is this smart?

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 34: Is this smart?_**

* * *

**AN:** This chapter is like… a whopping 17k words. Srs bsns 4 rlz.

It's all focused on Team 7 and their first missions; and what Yasha does with the contents of the Scroll of Sealing. What are the contents? What does it mean? Where am I? What is this?

* * *

Sasuke had, despite his forcing himself to come, been rather uncommunicative at supper. He did try, though, and put in effort to be social. Even socially-inept Naruto could tell that.

Yasha was recollecting his thoughts on his new team as he unlocked his front door. _'I kinda feel for the kid. He just didn't know how to talk; he doesn't want to overload us two with avenger-ness or woe-is-me, but that is like 95% of Sasuke's public image, so…'_

The manipulator snorted as he headed into the bathroom.

In the end, Sasuke had mostly just sat with them, and the two worked out what his sense of humour was by exchanging funny stories and seeing which he smiled at. Both other boys were careful not to exclude him, Naruto following Yasha's lead.

Then they talked about training and what they wanted to learn, which animated Sasuke a bit.

Naruto vowed to furiously work on his medium-range weapons, since shadow clones couldn't spawn a certain distance away and it only took one weapon hit to dispel them; a flurry of fast kunai would kill a flurry of shadow clones.

Yasha talked about his bloodline and (some of) what he knew of it. He didn't reveal any techniques he could use against the two though; while he might be fine sharing more details with Naruto on his own, he knew secrets couldn't be held by the blond. Naruto wouldn't _directly_ spill, mind you, but get someone good at emotion-reading and they wouldn't even need him to answer.

Sasuke was interested in genjutsu and ninjutsu, wanting to unlock his Sharingan despite Yasha's dislike of the doujutsu. He did briefly talk about the genjutsu and the massacre night, and Yasha again warned him against the Sharingan and its possible mental effects. Sasuke didn't seem dismissive of the theorised negative effects (thankfully), but he plainly didn't want to confirm it either, let alone talk about it.

There was no topic that would naturally lead on from that sombreness, so the conversation ended.

The three left the restaurant, bid goodnights and went their separate ways. Yasha hoped Sasuke would take his warnings of mental effects to heart; if Sharingan did cause arrogance, Sasuke wouldn't receive any warnings later when he eventually awoke it. He'd be too arrogant to, ironically.

Yasha shook himself, bringing himself back to the present. He frowned at himself, at his own uneasiness, as he stood in front of the bathroom mirror.

He was dithering, and he was smart enough to recognise it.

He didn't want to do this jutsu.

Yasha knew he had good chakra levels now. He had trained with Kurenai, and she had got him started on the snazzy D/C-Rank genjutsu – teaching him the principles behind each genjutsu. He would question every time, think about why two genjutsus' seals/target area/chakra level seemed to correlate, or didn't. He thought of genjutsu laws and theories, plans and schemes. He could blast out three decent C-Ranks from a full tank before he was tired, and his chakra control turned things into much less effort than expected, and he had a S-Rank bloodline.

But could he do a B-Rank Kage Bunshin? Or would he die from chakra exhaustion?

There was nothing in a manual about it. Not even a manual to begin with. The Nidaime's scroll was just a how-to, not a when-to. A Hokage's legacy scroll was assumed to be given to people the Third had deemed capable. And probably with the Third's guidance on when/how to use jutsu, when they had the chakra capacity and control to try it.

New techniques, unpractised ones, lacked the bodily experience and cost more chakra… so you normally gave up and lost control before you used the chakra correctly. You had to churn out extra chakra and the end results weren't that accurate anyway. With the Kage Bunshin technique, you were splitting the chakra outwards, and the clone would pull chakra to itself as well during the process.

Even if Yasha exerted the right amount of chakra in jutsu cost, the pull of half of his remaining cost to the clone could throw him off.

Yasha had good chakra capacity and excellent control, but he still felt uneasy. If he hit the hospital with chakra exhaustion, they wouldn't be able to help since he would reject outside chakra and soldier pills were dangerous. If he was _really_ drained of chakra, say hello to a whole block of skeletons around his apartment, not to mention him and Naruto would be very dead.

He didn't want Naruto to die or be left friendless after all the work he put into making a suitable minion. He didn't want his team ripped apart. He could care less about the surrounding villagers, although not much less.

Sasuke would brood his head off, Naruto would probably join him… and Kakashi was already living his teammates' lives for them.

_'Shit.'_

A few seconds of hesitation later he scowled and hardened his resolve.

_'Get a hold of yourself. If you win, yay. If you die, you won't be alive to care. The damages are inconsequential, because if they're bad you won't perceive them.' _He nodded to himself, quickly moving to action before a mental counterargument emerged, and made the seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

His body's chakra _ripped_ itself in half, just as horrific as he imagined and then some. Each organ was compressed and pulled. He could feel the darkness in his system struggling to adapt, each particle resisting the separation and shifting around confusedly. Each tiny chakra particle pushed past the insects, _pushing_ and _pulling_ and there went his stomach…

He dimly managed to grab and lean over the sink as the nausea spilled up his throat, his legs gave out and his vision went hazy. _'Shit, this is bad. Good thing I had soup for supper… damn good thing or this'd be much worse.'_

**_BAM BAM BAM!_**

"Yasha-kun, you okay?!" his housemate shouted worriedly.

Yasha winced. That boy had some good ears at just the wrong moments. "I'm fine," he called, his voice gradually strengthening, "I just need a minute, okay?!"

"You sure?!" Naruto called.

The brunette spat in the sink, washing his acid-tangy mouth out. '_Kami, stomach acid is the __**worst**__. Screw getting hit there.'_

"Yeah, I'm fine!" Yasha replied as assuredly as he could manage. After a few seconds, he heard slow footsteps away.

"That was rough," said a voice beside him.

Yasha spun, eyes widening at the sight. "Ho shit!"

A mirror copy brunette grinned back at him, looking a bit shaky on his legs. "Yeah, we're awesome. Can I use the sink now? I had the toilet just then."

Yasha stepped back and watched his clone gargle and spit water. "Stomach acid is the worst. Screw getting hit there," his clone groaned.

Yasha blinked. "I just thought that."

"Me too," the clone responded dryly.

Yasha smirked. "So what is this, a prelude to schizophrenia?"

"Just what I was thinking."

The two gazed at each other for a minute, both in silent thought and probably thinking the same things.

"Okay, I'll argue it is, you'll argue it isn't," the clone offered.

"Why me saying it isn't?" Yasha questioned.

"Because you got the sink first. Seems I'm getting the shittier options."

"Ha, punny," they both said, then slapped their foreheads simultaneously.

Naruto balked at the sound coming from the bathroom._ 'The heck? There's only one door and no windows. This is a new level of weird, even for Yasha…'_

Yasha nodded to his clone. "Well, I think having simultaneous parallel trains of thought is more of a single-minded committee."

"No, it's more of a faceted jewel, but if you put too much pressure on seeing each perspective, you'll split it up," the clone countered.

"No, to truly appreciate a jewel, or a scenario, you'll need to see it from as many perspectives as possible. It's probably more efficient to divide brainpower this way. We'll get a more-rounded opinion."

"It could induce schizophrenia, multiple personalities, from countering opinions. Of course…" the clone cut himself off before he counter-argued for the other side. Yasha was so used to imagining every angle, as a clone or not, he couldn't be in an argument without thinking about the other side's perspective.

Yasha raised an eyebrow then smirked, carrying on the sentence. "Of course, it does have the benefit of forcing all the personalities together. The main problem with most schizophrenic patients is the personalities don't intermingle very well. But in this case, they _physically_ have to, because the memories are conjoined."

The clone nodded thoughtfully. "But you also imply that speaking to yourself in this manner won't cause a problem. If say, I stubbornly disagreed with something you said, and you stubbornly refused to compromise, then we'd have two directly countering personalities – both almost equal in genuineness but jarringly different."

Yasha frowned in equal thought. "What could we argue about that we'd stick to even past a dispel time?"

"I'm not sure… but there's bound to be something."

"I suppose," Yasha mused. "It's more of a question of time, really – either we go for just the original as being the decision-maker despite all scenarios, or something."

The clone nodded. "Absolutely. If two clones disagree, they can't stay disagreeing as they dispel. It'll most likely jar the conscious too much to have completely opposite opinions. Maybe even induce schizophrenia. They'll have to agree, even if it's on a compromise."

"That's implying you clones have the smarts."

"Just _as_ smart, really." His clone smirked back, easily catching the tease. "That explains how Naruto never had problems. He has a one-track mind, so he never disagrees with his clones."

The clone spun around and leaned against the basin, crossing his legs. Yasha put the toilet seat down and sat on it as the two got down to business. "So, let's focus on the results. Your chakra level?"

"I have," the clone focused and measured it, "about a quarter of my chakra capacity."

"Same here," Yasha noted. "The cost must have taken a good half."

The clone shrugged. "It'll get better."

"You don't have to say that, I already know it," Yasha reminded him.

"Touché… I guess."

"So, do you feel anything? A connection to me you can break?"

The clone felt around everywhere mentally. "Not really…"

"I do." The original Yasha smirked. He could feel something very faintly, like a switch ready to flicked, a small string humming in his mind that he could pull on. "That's probably the chakra link I have to you. So you can dispel yourself, but no other clones?"

The clone shrugged indecisively. "I don't have another clone to check with… but I can't sense a connection with you. Remote dispel from clone to clone isn't necessary, though, the one that needs to dispel can just dispel themselves."

"That's true…" Yasha nodded. "And have you got any sort of mental switch or thing to do that?"

"I don't have anything like that – but surely it's just using a Kai. Since Kai destabilises the chakra flow, in a temporary Kage Bunshin, the whole clone would structure falls apart naturally."

"Right. We'll test that. Kai is fine since we're immune to genjutsu… assuming you have the insects in your chakra?"

The clone shook his head. "I'm not sure. The easiest way to check would be asking Hinata, or trying to flood the ground from my end and seeing how quickly the chakra becomes dark."

Yasha nodded. "Eh. I don't want Hinata to know, for obvious reasons as to why I don't want _anyone_ to know, so we'll have to do the latter one tomorrow." The clone gave him a raised eyebrow, and Yasha corrected himself. "Err, I mean, _I'll_ have to."

The clone grinned. "I _could_ stick around, but I'm just as tired as you are. If I pull an all-nighter it'll mess your brain up with memories of tiredness and sleeping at the same time. If I sleep, it'll give you double-sleep time… and I'm not sure if clones can take being unconscious. Or if their owner is unconscious."

"Good point. You'll have to dispel, then. First, do a Henge into Naruto, so we can see if the temporary structure deal means a lower rearrange cost. "

The clone did so. The clone-Naruto's voice spoke quietly, lest the real Naruto hear his own voice. "Hmm, that took a fifth of my reserves to change."

"That's one-twentieth total, it's…" Yasha scrunched his face up in thought, trying to recall a figure from experiences, "…it's about the same as normal, then."

"Alright, that makes sense." The clone undid the Henge and Yasha blinked away the thin wisps of chakra smoke around him. "I've noticed my chakra's not draining, though. It is in Henge, but the chakra level is still constant, as far as I can make out."

Yasha frowned. "That's odd. Isn't Kage Bunshin meant to have a limited time period?"

"Well, you… or we… or I…" both of them rolled their eyes at the language failure, "…_do_ have very good chakra control. Maybe we can hold Kage Bunshin for longer because of that… but I'm not consciously retaining my chakra though."

"Maybe it's the swarms? The swarms surrounding the chakra network and are keeping it stable, increasing the time limit to Kage Bunshin?" Yasha concluded uncertainly.

The clone shrugged. "Maybe. But they also allow physical regeneration. We'll need to test how much damage a Kage Bunshin can take, it could be higher than normal."

Yasha nodded. "I read anything good enough to disturb the user's major chakra structure. It can be extended with good chakra control, though, forcing the structure to remain whole by control alone. A good punch should work." He made a fist, the clone looking a bit inquisitive, and hesitated. "Of course, if it does work, I'll get the memory of the hit."

"Pfft." Yasha's clone smirked. "There's only so much hitting you can do before Naruto is weirded out."

Yasha covered his mouth, eyes crinkling as he imagined Naruto looking totally puzzled as he heard a fistfight in the bathroom. Not to mention the apparent one-sided conversation he might be able to hear right now.

"Anyway, you need to get a knife or something, I need something near-fatal. That way we can test the physical damage thing for sure."

"Actually, that reminds me." Yasha recalled a hypothesis he had, and fixed his clone with an questioning look. "Do you feel uneasy about the idea of being dispelled? Like you feel like you would be killed?"

"Oddly, no…" the clone admitted thoughtfully. "Dispelling doesn't _seem_ like dying. It feels like… well, I already know I'm not the original, and since I'll literally _merge_ with you, brain included, I don't have that foreboding sense of disappearing. It's still bad, like…" he waved his hands vaguely, "…well, like being knocked out would be bad. But that's it; it's no more scary than being knocked out."

Yasha nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense. No wonder Naruto could abuse it. Imagine if all his clones started screaming about not wanting to die before they became Hokage."

The clone groaned. "Urgh. That'd be stupid."

They sat silently for a while, until the clone spoke again, having worked out an analogy. "It'll be like taking the person who wakes up tomorrow as different to who falls asleep today."

Yasha immediately reviewed the other side of an argument, as he was used to. "Well, technically…"

"Yeah…" the clone admitted, also having considered the other side: A person can easily wake up in a bad mood after going to bed in a good mood. Or be so tired they're snappy and they wake up much refreshed and more easy-going. Thus, they could act as different people.

"But I know what you mean by that." Yasha nodded. "If you had genuinely hated the idea of dispelling, I probably would've left you alone until you hit the time limit and your chakra ran out."

The clone smirked. "Nice of me. Waiting until I die of exhaustion."

Yasha smirked back. "I guess you might as well dispel. I need all the chakra I can get back from you or I won't know the cost of the Kage Bunshin technique."

"Okay." The clone made a Tiger hand seal, frowning. "This might be rough… _Kai!_"

The returning chakra/swarm disturbance was milder than when it left, but Yasha still ended up on his knees leaning over the toilet.

"I hear throwing up, dattebayo! Are you okay, dattebayo?!" Naruto's verbal tic showed itself rather prominently.

Yasha wordlessly reached out and unlocked the door, resuming his pose over the toilet. His head was still swimming.

The blond burst in and quickly grabbed him, face full of concern. "You okay, Yasha-kun, dattebayo?!"

"Since when is dattebayo a question?" Yasha responded, smiling weakly.

It took a good minute for the Death Release user to recover. Naruto stuck at his side, staring worriedly, but otherwise silent, rubbing his back circularly and carefully. Yasha wondered where he'd seen that done before, or if it was just instinctual, but it was a very soothing motion.

It was ironic. He could chug poisons and get rid of them without vomit… but doing Kage Bunshin, something the simple-minded blond beside him could do in the hundreds (all of them cheerful and energetic), made Yasha and his clones lose their stomach contents when he did it in the _ones_.

One clone drained half his chakra capacity from the cost of the jutsu, and the remaining half was split in half, giving both sickly clones only a quarter of his total chakra.

He could remember saying the other side of the conversation now – feeling a bit like someone else's memories but at the same time genuinely his. Thank Kami it wasn't a confusing mismatch. It had the potential to beth e[ptemtoa; tp be ttttt immensely disturbing as well as distracting.

Come to think of it, while Naruto was ploughing ahead with hundreds of clones against an enemy, he'd be receiving memories constantly. Did his one-track mindset just block them out?

_'At any rate, I hope this gets better over time. I'm not sure if I'll be able to improve the chakra cost when I'm too distracted by how nauseating it is.'_ Yasha sighed, wiping his mouth with his hand and his hand with toilet paper.

So a loss of half his chakra in pure 'jutsu cost' meant he would only be able to make a single clone at full to just above half capacity. Two would leave both the clones and himself with almost no chakra, assuming it didn't flat-out kill him with exhaustion.

He had excellent chakra control, and he just had to work on it… at least, once the swarms stopped making him spew and got used to the splitting. It was always the same cross hand seal, they'd recognise the technique soon enough.

The Death Release tossed the dirtied paper into the toilet, flushing it, and stood up slowly, the blond helping him like some sort of carer. He frowned in thought. _'Plus, I __**have to**__ use this technique. I can't trust Keito, even if he is genuine, he's young and will make mistakes. Not to mention, the chakra he has, and the silencing seal is too underpowered… it'll run out in minutes. I need to be able to use this jutsu… not that a quarter-tank clone will do much good, but at least duration of the clone doesn't seem like much of a problem…'_

"Ano, Yasha-kun, are you sick?" Naruto asked cautiously, his expression highly concerned.

Yasha waved his hand. "No, I think I'm fine. I could do with some tea, but since you're pants at making it…"

"I'm not pants at it! You just don't like it, dattebayo!" Naruto protested hotly. Yasha just gargled more water to rid the acidic taste from his mouth.

"You need to get to bed if you're sick, Yasha-kun, dattebayo," the blond insisted, started pulling on Yasha's weak-feeling arm. "Come on, dattebayo."

"Alright," Yasha agreed tiredly, standing back up. He missed the flicker of alarm cross Naruto's face as he agreed to be careful. The blond was expecting him to be unmoving, giving a sarcastic response that would ward off the compassion, his normal behaviour.

The brunette gazed in the mirror, lost in his own eyes for a brief moment. "I'm gonna brush my teeth and sleep it off. Just wake me up normal time tomorrow."

"Is it contagious?" Naruto asked curiously.

Yasha blinked, having not taken that train of thought, particularly because Naruto had Kyuubi immunity to sicknesses. "No, I just ate something odd."

"You're sure?"

"Yep. Don't worry, the swarms will keep me alive, as long as I have chakra," Yasha dismissed his concerns – rather poorly as mentioning his death, even how he was going to avoid it, tended to make Naruto pale.

Yasha was still frowning in thought as he brushed his teeth. _'For the record, the reclaimed chakra from the clone had been whittled down from a near-quarter to an eighth. I went from a full tank pre-clone to three eighths post-clone-dispel. Interesting, so I seem to get roughly half of the clone's-'_

"Yasha-kun…" Naruto sighed, still hovering very close, "I don't want you to be sick and collapse on the floor like last time."

Yasha winced. Not his proudest moment. "Don't worry, Naruto-kun. If anything happens, just take me to the hospital, and send a clone to the Hokage. He'll come make sure the hospital takes care of me."

"You think you might need the hospital?!" Naruto said, instantly wide-eyed.

"No!" Yasha hastily corrected him. His concern was off the scale, and the way he was distanced from anyone else… well, this was the result. "It's just what you have to do if I ever get sick. I don't think you'll need to worry if I die anyway."

"Uh, why?" Naruto asked, looking puzzled as his housemate smirked.

"Because the insects will destroy my body, along with anyone nearby. So if anyone kills me, they die. And you'll die too because you sleep next to me. See, nothing to worry about."

It was over-simplification – use of an elemental clone would be able to circumvent the swarms' backlash; the chakra wouldn't travel back to the user and would dissolve into its element. But then again, he didn't know the 'release radius' or how aggressive the swarms would be, and if he didn't, chances are the attacker wouldn't either. Naruto could be fine, and Yasha had never experienced what happened when he died, for an obvious reason.

But if Naruto died, the Kyuubi's chakra would explode outwards as well, and that stuff was corrosive, hatred-filled, and very, very big. So any attacker would need to make an elemental clone then run for it, somehow maintaining the clone at a distance while not being close enough for the Kyuubi or his releases to affect them.

No mean achievement.

* * *

_"Sorry, Naruto. It was all an act. I just manipulated you," Yasha smirked, holding the blade point on Naruto's stomach._

_"No! Yasha!" Naruto could tell he was crying as he tried to snap his friend out of it._

_"Hehehe…" Yasha laughed, and a stab of pain shot through his stomach as the knife plunged downwards…_

"GAHH!" Naruto shot upwards, grabbing his stomach, where he could still feel the blade… but there was nothing. Nothing. A sharp phantom pain remained there.

He couldn't see, again, he could never see in the bedroom when it was dark… so he listened hard and could here shallow, smooth breathing from beside him.

Naruto could feel Yasha there as he moved his hand slowly, trying not to wake him. It was definitely Yasha there.

Then his mind drifted back to the evening before. Yasha was sick, wasn't he? Was he okay now?

Immediately the nightmare shot back. He shook his head so violently he felt a headache coming on. He could feel the tears that had somehow turned up cooling from the movement, and he hastily wiped it away. _'Yasha wouldn't do that. Yasha has never done anything the villagers did. He's my best friend.'_

He realised he was protesting out loud at his own thoughts when Yasha stirred and murmured something incoherent. "Naruto, you…" he began, the rest lost to sleep.

"What about me?" he asked.

There was no response, bar the quiet breathing. Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair, noting it was dirty. He'd forgotten to shower after the survival test… he'd probably been dirty all day and no one commented. Was that supposed to mean something?

Still, he should know better than try to figure Yasha out. He spent the most time with him out of anyone, but the brunette still regularly perturbed him. Case in point, during the exam, he randomly, out of nowhere, got the ability to move at speeds Naruto couldn't even track. He even caught a _jounin _off-guard.

And Yasha somehow just knew what to say, all the time, to get what he wanted. Naruto could have never imagined Sasuke working alongside 'the dead-last' willingly. Yet Yasha had achieved it, right after stealing the bell right in front of everyone.

Maybe it was one of those secret techniques in the scroll he had earlier? Intrigued, Naruto began to think hard. He knew Yasha the best… where would he hide the scroll?

Somewhere hard to access, not somewhere anyone could get into without Yasha noticing…

No, hold on. It couldn't be in the scroll. Yasha had done it that day when the two met Kurenai, he had moved too quickly for the blond to see. So he had even had it back then… how?

Naruto sighed, he couldn't figure it out; and the sound woke the brunette partially, and he mumbled something about 'stupid brats' and Naruto found himself grinning inexplicably.

Naruto didn't pretend to understand Yasha, but he was happy to have him as a friend.

He lay back down and soon the room only had two sets of quiet, rhythmic breathing.

* * *

Sasuke blinked in confusion. He was at the agreed meeting point. He checked the position of the sun, that his watch was still ticking, and used Kai for good measure.

It had been fifteen minutes past the agreed time and not a _single_ other member of the team was here. _'The hell?'_

Sasuke wasn't sure whether he should be worried or angry, but he was leaning towards the latter. Yesterday, at least Naruto had turned up to the survival test on time, even if Yasha and Kakashi hadn't. Then again, he lived with Yasha, who was even later than a jounin who seemed to have a habit of lateness. The blond dobe could easily be delayed by him.

So Sasuke wondered what to do next. Search for their house? He didn't know where they lived. They were both orphans, but it was well known Yasha had his own place (after a girl had managed to stalk him home). The girl was sworn into not saying _where_ it was once Yasha found out she knew, but everyone knew that he had his own place with no adults to speak of.

No one dared follow him home after that, though, he would just **glare** at them until they ran away. Even his fangirls weren't immune to his intimidation factor, but that didn't seem to dissuade them, probably for the same reason Sasuke's own fangirls hadn't stopped when he had begun ignoring them.

How Yasha managed to _rent a __**house**_ while on _orphan funding _was a very interesting question. Sasuke got his payslip like all the other orphans, and he knew how big it was.

But that was something to think of later… for now, Sasuke couldn't find the two easily. He could ask the Hokage or maybe Iruka… no, it felt degrading to ask for something at the Academy now that he'd left, and it'd be an embarrassment to talk to the Hokage over concern for his teammates.

Sasuke was no sap. He wasn't _that_ dependent on them. He was an avenger. Avengers worked alone, hard, and were set on their goal.

And he had to wait three hours before his damn _sensei_ was predicted to turn up before he could ask him, and Kami knew how long before his teammates did… Screw this team. He wasn't even sure he'd want to stick with them if he _wasn't_ an avenger.

Finally his eyes caught them – twenty minutes late, two figures emerged from the trees. He could spot the blond hair a good distance off, but the orange jumpsuit was a dead give-away.

His glare softened a bit as he realised Yasha looked rather pale. Very pale, actually. Naruto was actually holding him up. Sasuke briefly wondered if this was some sort of fallout from Yasha's extreme speed jutsu, but dismissed it. He looked ill, not limping, and his chakra level was noticeably low. Sasuke was nothing close to a sensor, but he knew what Yasha's regular level felt like, and this was under it.

"Sorry about the lateness, Sasuke-san," Yasha said somewhat weakly.

"Don't apologise to the teme!" Naruto 'whispered' to him, easily loud enough for Sasuke to hear.

Yasha clouted him on the head, defusing Sasuke's glare. "You apologise too. Teammates should know better than to be rude."

"Itai!" Naruto yelped. He looked ready to ignore the command and glare Sasuke down, but eventually gave in, and inspected his shoes while muttering something – something that vaguely sounded like it may have graced the far edge of an apology… if you were feeling generous.

Sasuke grunted shortly, relieved the team wasn't quite as dysfunctional as he had thought. With Yasha being nice to him, and because he was curious what would make someone like Yasha ill, he asked, "Are you okay, Yasha?"

"Yeah. I just ate something nasty yesterday, still had problems this morning, I guess," Yasha explained matter-of-factly.

Sasuke grunted acknowledgement and turned back to the post, settling down to wait for the ever-late sensei. Even the visibly sick classmate had more punctuality than this supposed elite jounin. Geez.

Yasha laid down with his back against a tree and dozed for a while, eventually waking up about an hour and digging out a bento from his bag, which he preceded to eat.

"He didn't have breakfast," Naruto informed Sasuke in his defence, although the Uchiha had only raised an eyebrow.

Yasha swallowed and spoke morbidly. "If it stays down, I'll be good to do the D-Ranks, otherwise I might as well go home."

Sasuke didn't react to the comment, although he was silently grateful Yasha wasn't one of those completely invulnerable people like Itachi seemed to be. True, Yasha had stoic moments, but he didn't try to maintain it anywhere near all the time as Itachi had. He had moments he was weak, too, although… yeah, now that Sasuke checked, he still _felt_ dangerous, but not as much as before.

_'Still a good enough level to keep me feeling threatened, though,'_ the Uchiha noted to his irritation. _'Those insects of his are really something.'_

The meal stayed down and colour slowly began to return to the other brunette's cheeks. Both him and the blond dozed, both leaning on the same tree trunk next to each other, although Sasuke kept himself awake and mildly alert on the off chance the jounin would actually turn up earlier than expected.

About three hours late, a branch creaked, and Sasuke shot a glare at Kakashi now crouching on it. Sasuke tuned out everything else instantly to analyse the jounin's actions, under the pretence of the unimpressed glare. Even as the blond confronted him loudly, and the jounin made up some half-hearted excuse, Sasuke watched the jounin's eye flickering over all three of their bodies in some sort of pattern, subconsciously checking them all against a list of things Sasuke could only guess at.

Then his eye drifted back to Yasha. "Maa, we haven't even started missions yet and you smell like vomit, Yasha-kun?"

"What can I say, I party hard," Yasha replied nonchalantly, not moving from where he was slumped.

Sasuke realised working out whether Yasha was lying or not would be difficult. He had a good poker face and didn't always bother to add sarcastic undertones to what he said. He hadn't done it yesterday – what had he said? _'My hobbies are dodging around various powerful figures and scaring people with words. And my dream is to have a flee-on-sight in the Bingo Book, and to kill people with a hard stare.'_

He had said it humorously – it seemed like he thought it was funny to admit it, but not that it was an outright joke. His hobbies included dodging around powerful figures? He must have done that at least once, then, it wouldn't be a hobby if he had never done it.

Another question to ask, then. Along with if he knew Itachi's weaknesses. For some reason, although he had only seen him speak with Itachi once… Sasuke had a nagging feeling that he would.

* * *

"Team 7 reporting for duty, Hokage-sama," Kakashi announced in a tone filled with obviously fake cheerfulness. The two brunettes on the team briefly looked concerned, while the blond's grin just widened eagerly. Of course, Naruto hadn't picked up on the subtlety of his tone.

"Ah, Team 7." The Hokage gave all of them a once-over, noticing the ever-present warning feeling as his eyes passed over a slightly pale Yasha, and rummaged through the D-Ranks.

Deftly, the silver-haired jounin caught the thrown scroll, unfurling, practised eyes skimming it and pulling out short commands from the paragraphs. "Ah, we're capturing a cat, then babysitting…" Kakashi read, the fake enthusiasm no longer bothering to grace his tone.

"Capturing a cat?!" Naruto repeated in disbelief, his mental gears seeming to jam and he spluttered for words before finally faceplanting.

Yasha sighed and began to walk out. "Cool. Cheerio, Hokage-sama. Let's go kill the cat."

"_Capture_ the cat, Yasha-kun," Kakashi felt obliged to correct him as they left.

Yasha's voice echoed back from the hallway. "I heard you. Kill the cat."

"Capturing a cat…" Naruto muttered to himself again, a cloud hanging over him as he dragged himself out. Sasuke looked like he was trying to glare the D-Rank scroll into flames in some unknown Uchiha method as he left.

Iruka sighed in relief, having fully expected Naruto to start yelling about how he deserved something better or more ninja-y. His teammates must be doing him good.

"WHY DO _NINJA_ HAVE TO FIND A _CAT?!_" The blond's delayed reaction tore through the mission assignment building.

The teacher groaned, slapping his palm to his forehead. The Hokage just smirked.

Some things would never change…

* * *

"Five metres from target. Everyone in position?" Kakashi drawled, reminiscing about the last time he had to track down a B-Rank missing-nin during his ANBU days. No more of that now, it was missing cats…

"Hai," Sasuke responded shortly.

"Hai!" Naruto managed to cheer quietly.

"I guess." Yasha sounded bored again. No surprise there.

"Go!"

The Uchiha and Uzumaki jumped into the street and immediately leaped for the cat. Tora managed to leap and slink through a hole they deliberately left open, and she ran towards Yasha, who stepped out with far less enthusiasm than the other two boys.

The duo quickly turned, nearly head-butting each other as they both raced after the cat… only to come to a stumbling halt at the bizarre sight.

The cat had frozen in its spot, fur standing on end and tail looking very bushy. Its eyes were wide and it was staring at the boy in front of it.

"Here, kitty, kitty," Yasha droned flatly, arms spread and ready to catch if it moved forward. The cat didn't move an inch, muscles completely locked in place, not even hissing. Yasha moved forward and it somehow tensed up even more without moving. In fact, it was _quivering_.

"Naruto, if you would…" Yasha prompted with a slow gesture of his hand, his dark eyes locked onto the cat's beady ones.

Naruto nodded, crept forward and swiped up the cat, and she was still tense in his arms, focus very much locked onto the Death Release user.

Sasuke observed the cat, feeling perturbed. How did Yasha manage to get even _cats_ scared of him? Or was it all animals?

"Target secure!" Naruto crowed, back to enthusiastic and apparently not at all concerned that the target had frozen up.

Kakashi recoiled. "Really?" he replied in disbelief before flickering to the scene. He gazed at the terrified cat, then turned to Yasha with a frown. "You shouldn't use jutsu on animals, Yasha-kun."

"I didn't," Yasha replied, shrugging. "She just can't take my awesomeness. It has this overwhelming factor."

"She?" Naruto repeated, confused.

The rest of the team gave him dull-eyed looks until he muttered a quiet 'oh'.

"Really? Do you and her have a history?" Kakashi asked, bemused. Tora was no pushover – it was a miracle she wasn't yowling and scratching Naruto to pieces. The genin teams that had to deal with her… well, Obito had endured most of the scratching. Kakashi had dog summons so the cats didn't like him either.

_'Obito… Rin…'_

Kakashi almost lost himself in memories when Naruto started complaining loudly about 'how was he meant to tell' and 'animals bits were hidden' and generally embarrassing all of them… until both other boys wandered off towards the Hokage tower, clearly disowning all knowledge of him.

Kakashi fell in step with the team and watched with concern as the cat-demon stared unblinkingly at Yasha, rigid as a board in Naruto's arms. It was like Kanashibari no Jutsu [Temporary Paralysis Technique], but Kakashi's instincts were telling him that wasn't it; Yasha's chakra level hadn't decreased; in fact, it had increased minutely.

It had been recuperating most of the time they walked around Konoha looking for the cat, so Yasha must had trained then ate something – a sushi bento if Kakashi's nose served him correctly.

He apparently had a stomach bug, although Kakashi was nearly definite that was a lie, since he had read the T&amp;I report (along with any other documents he could find on Yasha). He knew that Yasha regenerated, poison didn't even hit the digestive system, and he couldn't even have chakra-inhibiting seals placed on him. The swarms even extracted tasteless, odourless drugs from inside a cup of tea Yasha drank during the interrogation.

So how could he get ill?

He definitely had a faint smell of vomit around him, though, and Naruto was much more protective of him in his body language (Sasuke wasn't one to start a fight, not while he wanted training from Yasha, so that was as far as the protectiveness was needed). And Yasha had been noticeably pale, although that improved later as well.

It was no secret most people were looking for an excuse to punish the blond. Maybe he had some sort of spar with Naruto and the blond had hit him in the stomach on accident? Did Yasha or Naruto not trust their team enough to admit it to them for fear Naruto would get punished? Or was it genuinely a sickness and the report was mistaken when it said the swarms would handle it?

Normally Kakashi would've just made a clone on the sly, and had it check the teammate out with its Sharingan, and see if he could spot what was wrong, but Yasha was immune to having his chakra inspected. He wouldn't see anything of use.

All he knew was Yasha was sick and the report said that wasn't possible.

* * *

"Team 7 reporting back, Hokage-sama," Kakashi droned.

"Ah, I…" the Hokage trailed off when he saw a very stiff, very terrified cat in Naruto's grip. He blinked at the cat, then realised she was staring at Yasha and none of them looked scratched in the slightest. "Why is she… in that condition?" He glanced around but thankfully the Daimyo's wife wasn't present, '_Thank Kami-sama.'_

Kakashi gave a shrug. "Well, my cute student here assures me he didn't use jutsu."

"Ha. I'm cute," Yasha repeated smugly, sticking out his tongue at Naruto.

The Hokage studied Yasha's unapologetic expression, still sensing the warning feeling Yasha always emitted. Maybe a cat was just not equipped to handle that warning. "Yasha, do you know any other animals that react to you that way?"

Yasha shrugged dismissively. "Just Kiba's dog, Akamaru, and he always hid and whined. It made Kiba act weird."

The two adults nodded sagely, as if it explained everything rather than just concerned them. Ninja dogs were much more resistant to feelings of danger, even dogs still in training.

Kakashi wondered how Pakkun would react to him. _'Should I waste some chakra using a Summon to find out?'_

Naruto's ego inflated back to normal once he realised they weren't in trouble. "It was easy, Jiji! I just hid and jumped out and it stopped moving, dattebayo! How long did we take?"

"One hour, twenty-three minutes… a new record."

Yasha got a twitch in his eye as Naruto's boasting turned from an exaggeration to just insulting. "Oi, idiot. It was me who stopped it, you know. You two just led it to me."

Sasuke stood, watching disinterestedly as the two bickered. He wasn't particularly interested in getting credit. It was capturing a damn cat, not a missing-nin.

(He wasn't aware Kakashi was thinking the same thing.)

The Hokage gestured to a cat cage that Madam Shijimi had provided. She was planning to come in by a couple of hours, when the capture was normally done by. It was a good thing they had finished so quickly and she didn't see a petrified cat. Hopefully it'd recover by then.

Times ranged from eight hours to one hour, forty minutes – bearing in mind they had to find the cat first. Of course, Minato's records of less than five seconds weren't included. Madam Shijimi had been very upset when the Fourth died, but then again her liking of him could always have been a bit more carnal – but the Kage's mind was _not_ going down that particular branch of thought.

His attention turned back to the team. "Well, the next mission, you have on your scroll already. They're not expecting you until noon, though. So you have some free time."

"Ah. Okay," Kakashi replied languidly. He hadn't planned anything for spare time. _'Maybe I can pull out one of those common-as-dirt chakra control exercises? Just the basico basico, even-Naruto-can-handle-this basico. Tree climbing? Nah, they'll get obsessed, start running up the walls in the client's house when they babysit as some sort of rivalry… maybe leaf exercise, they'll be able to do that while babysitting. I wonder if the babies will be petrified of Yasha-chan as well?'_

"Ja ne, Hokage-sama," he waved vaguely and the team filed back out.

"How much money does that D-Rank give us?" Yasha voiced his curiosity.

"Hmm…" Kakashi mused, wondering why he was concerned with money while he did some simple math. Well, Yasha did pay rent for a place. "Well, about two thousand ryou, for each of you. The next one has a similar cost, because it's for three hours – we're babysitting a charming young boy in about an hour," his eye trailed over the group, measuring their reactions. "Unless, you guys want to get there early?"

"Who's the kid we're babysitting? It's not Konohamaru is it?" Surprisingly, Naruto was the first to ask about the mission.

"No, it would be a Miyako Yamanaka," Kakashi recalled, not needing to open the scroll again. Yasha briefly tensed up, something both the jounin and Sasuke noted. _'He's not keen on Yamanaka, I can guess why…' _the silver-haired jounin mused.

"Well, I don't mind… quicker we get these silly missions out the way the better," the blond said, folding his arms.

The two brunettes nodded assent. "Lunch first, though," Yasha added, whipping out another bento from his bag. "Sasuke, do you have anything?"

Sasuke grunted and took out his own bento, wandering to a nearby bench. Kakashi blinked when Yasha handed Naruto a box and the blond took it easily. _'So, he's making lunch for him… taking caring to a new level just for control of him…'_

"You good Kaka-sensei? I've got a spare one," Yasha offered, adopting Naruto's nickname for the jounin without even seeming to notice, although the blond started grinning.

Kakashi briefly wondered whether to save face and wander off to buy something, but concluded it'd be funnier to see them try to look under his mask if he ate with them. "Sure, I'll have it. Cheers, duckling."

Yasha threw him a half-hearted glare for the nickname as he sat on the bench beside Sasuke and Naruto, while Kakashi leant on a fence nearby, and the team ate in companionable silence. Naruto kept a firm look on Kakashi's face, so Kakashi created a seal-less environmental genjutsu around him to make it look like he wasn't moving.

The ever-observant Naruto didn't notice it at all. Yasha didn't seem interested in looking over, although Kakashi guessed he would see right through the genjutsu due to his swarms. It was technically a B-Rank genjutsu, so Sasuke would have problems as well, but he didn't seem interested either… not that he would be able to see because the other two boys were in the way.

Kakashi idly noted the bento wasn't poisoned and it actually tasted pretty good. Watching Naruto's disbelief growing as the food vanished from Kakashi's bento box without the jounin's arms seeming to move was pretty amusing. The jounin made a mental note to repeat the fun in the future.

Yasha broke the silence. "Hey Naruto… guess what?"

"What?" Naruto replied, scoffing down the last of his bento.

"It's not ramen," Yasha said flatly.

Naruto paused, two bits of rice stuck to his face while he processed the statement. _'What was… how am I meant to respond to that?'_

"It's still good?" he tried uneasily. Yasha nodded, leaning back on the bench, dark eyes fixed on the sky. Naruto exhaled in relief, not sure if he passed a test of some sort.

Sasuke smoothly finished his bento, wiping his face quickly, then gazed at Naruto, eyebrow twitching at his appearance. Why was Yasha friends with him again? "Oi, dobe, clean your face."

Yasha snapped his head up, looking like he was about to say something angrily… then shut his mouth and silently dropped his head back, staring back up at the sky.

Naruto had noticed the near-intervention and hesitated when he didn't say anything, his gaze shooting between to Sasuke and Yasha, trying to work out what Yasha was thinking of when he stopped – even as his hand quickly cleaned his face.

He knew him for three months, although it felt like years – so what was Yasha expecting now? Why did he stop?

"Thanks," he responded to Sasuke, his anger completely defused by the awkwardly long delay.

"Woo. Pacifism no jutsu unlocked." Yasha shot a fist into the air while his tone remained completely flat. Kakashi snorted, and that was all it took to set Naruto off.

Then a grinning Yasha shoved sideways, sending Naruto into an unsuspecting Sasuke who fell off the armless bench, flailing. Sasuke growled in anger, shoving Naruto back forcibly and Yasha flew off the other side, starting to laugh.

Kakashi felt a pleased smile forming as the three started some sort of territorial clash with Naruto gigging breathlessly in-between them and the two brunettes with silently determined faces. The three, as bizarre as they were, still were kids under all that.

Then Naruto, clutching his sides with laughter, leant forward too far, falling off the bench and leaving the brunette duo shoving against each other. A short battle of strength that Yasha conceded, grabbing Sasuke around the neck while pushing his leg out, pulling them both off the bench onto the blond with loud 'oof's.

There was soon an impromptu tussling going on and their sensei kept a careful eye on the rambunctious group to make sure it didn't become violent. Two of them were laughing in that uncontrolled breathless fashion, although Sasuke was only grinning, and soon the Uchiha had both laughing teammates pinned.

"I yield!" Yasha said unashamedly, still chuckling, and sat back on the bench.

"Wuss! You can't give up _hahaha_ to Sasuke that easily, dattebayo!" Naruto attempted to bait him while being pinned. But as expected, Yasha wasn't easily moved by emotion.

"Hey, if it was a spar, I'd kick his butt," Yasha said matter-of-factly.

"You would what?!" Sasuke took the bait, finally seeing an opening for a spar request. "I'm an Uchiha, I'll destroy you!"

"No need to be so aggressive, Sasuke-_chan~_," Yasha began, before he was tackled off the bench again.

* * *

A blond woman was idly inspecting her tulips when the doorbell rang. She glanced up at the clock, bustling to the door. A silver-haired man gazed at her boredly, slumped on the doorpost. "We're here to baby-sit. Noon 'til three PM?"

"Oh, you're a few minutes early…" she trailed off when she saw the three very dirty, grinning boys behind them. She blinked at the sight – they looked like they had already done a full day's work, but she knew better than to question ninja hopefuls. "Don't get dirt on the furniture, boys."

A blond that looked vaguely familiar grinned, turning to the Uchiha. "Yeah, Sasuke-_chan_-_oof!"_

A boy she thought was Yasha, waved his hand at her in a bored fashion as the two other boys wrestled on the ground behind him. "Don't worry about the two princesses behind me. I'll pull them along-_agh!"_

Kakashi watched as Yasha was dragged backwards into the fray and the three resumed the tussle that was happening a while ago. He sighed. "The mission involves being inside the house, not ruining their garden."

"Details, details," Yasha dismissed casually, before the wind was knocked out of him.

In the end they had wasted so much time scuffling before the mission Kakashi didn't see the point in teaching them the exercise. He was just pleased their bond was growing. Yasha seemed to be well capable of pulling Sasuke out of his shell with childish challenges. As an Uchiha he was inclined to ignore them for being beneath him, but it was obvious he didn't want to risk Yasha seeing him in a bad light.

Yasha was obviously aware of that, but only Kakashi noted the darker motives behind impromptu and minor challenges. If Yasha could, he'd put Sasuke in the same boat as Naruto; completely dependent on him and trusting what he said down to the last syllable.

The jounin knew they rarely bonded outside the meeting – Yasha kept such a firm hold on Naruto he was rarely apart. Sasuke knew Yasha was strong because he was intimidating… and in a way, he was right, Death Release was definitely formidable. But he was playing into Yasha's manipulations by sheer ignorance; just like Naruto had, Sasuke had no one close to him. Sasuke was sharper than Naruto but that wouldn't make much difference.

Kakashi wasn't sure how much Yasha genuinely cared for either of his teammates under his controlling and detached nature. There wouldn't be a way of testing it… not without severe fallout, anyway. But Yasha wouldn't stop the other two from getting stronger. He wouldn't need to, after all.

Naruto could learn every technique in the world, but before someone who was that emotionally linked to him, he could never go all out. If he gave Yasha opportunity to use a deadly technique, which Yasha had easy access to with his bloodline, he'd be killed.

Sasuke would have little problems with turning against Yasha once he had to, but then his ability to make bonds would be forever damaged. Outside his team, the boys in his year group were jealous of his status as Uchiha heir. The girls were, well, lusting after him. There was little chance of regular friendship with someone his own age and the massacre blew his polite and mildly outgoing personality away.

Yasha was the only one who remained by his side. Again, just Yasha.

Although, with time, the Uzumaki and the Uchiha would develop a bond between them two. Then it would be a true team.

…Or would it?

Yasha was too good at hiding his true self, so good even he probably wouldn't be able to tell his own genuine feelings; with a detachment complex like his, he could love someone like a brother and let them die without even crying about it. Kakashi knew his bloodline caused people to be suspicious of him… but damn, half of Kakashi's thoughts were inclined as to whether Yasha's presence was a good idea, and how much Yasha could have planned this… because there was literally no better team formation for these three, from an individual perspective. It was practically textbook, how they fixed each other's flaws – not out of necessity, but Naruto would have a hard time bonding outside of Yasha, and Sasuke would be nigh impossible to work with – the girls would cling to him, driving him away, and the boys would be irked by his arrogant Uchiha nature.

The only person Sasuke respected in the year group was Yasha, so he had to dial it back; and Sasuke's mask of humility, if held for too long, would eventually merge with his genuine personality, giving him a much-needed handle on his pride. Naruto's bright personality and constant smiles would cause Sasuke to grow more like him to get closer to Yasha.

However, if Sasuke was with Yasha but without Naruto, Sasuke would remain broody, becoming more cunning and apathetic like Yasha… and Kami-sama help the poor third member of the team. And their sensei.

On Naruto's side, separating Yasha from him was a highly volatile risk. Naruto was still very emotionally sensitive, and Yasha had made no attempts to remove that weakness; he kept him vulnerable, while protecting him, keeping the bond between them growing constantly stronger but not letting any other bonds form easily – and thereby causing (or forcing) Naruto to be dependent on him.

If anyone betrayed Naruto's trust, or in any emotional turmoil, Yasha would be the only person Naruto would think of turning to; compared to him, no one held an emotional bond near that level. And no genin liked going to adults for help, it had the risk of making them seem immature.

While Sasuke would just shoulder emotional turmoil by himself, calling it weakness and trying to become more hateful to gain strength to plow through it – unless Yasha showed a bit of the brutal, incredibly intelligent, manipulative and cunning mind Kakashi caught glimpses of behind the boy's apathetic/playful mask, and he snapped the Uchiha out of that method of handling things.

Love could be used to control; hate was much less controllable. It took only a little for someone to ruin love, but it was nigh impossible to get rid of hate formed from bitterness.

Moving on to the sensei of the three-member team, the deciding factor was Sasuke; Naruto had no bloodline and Yasha had no one with a matching one. There had been only two members in Konoha with active Sharingan after the massacre, and Yūrei had left the village like Itachi, with rumours flying in all directions about his loyalty and what he was doing outside.

So the fact Kakashi would be picked for their sensei was all but given, since the civilian council had their fingers firmly in the Uchiha pie after the broadcasted news of 'Uchiha slays hundreds with ease' combined with 'only one loyal Uchiha left' in the news. While the shinobi part of the council didn't want the Uchiha genes gone, or Sharingan poorly trained either, so they somewhat more cautiously went along with it. In addition, Kakashi was one of the most elite in the jounin-sensei position (after the Hokage had him pulled from ANBU).

So the team seemed ideal. Yasha could fix both emotional problems of the two boys, if he was inclined to; but he seemed to just want to make them dependent on him.

Kakashi could always ignore that aspect. The team _worked_. Both boys were attentive to Yasha for different reasons; there was a clear leader should Kakashi be incapacitated, and all three were strong individually and wanted to protect each other. Leaving Yasha alone would create a similar relationship with Sasuke as he had with Naruto; dependence. Yasha had taken the steps to include Sasuke yesterday. The two-person dependence would form a 'co-interest bond' between Naruto and Sasuke, albeit slowly, so the teamwork between all three would be sound.

Yasha had a mind well capable of leadership; plans and strategies, long-term manipulation tactics were unnervingly commonplace to him. If Yasha ever went rogue after he had formed the dependence bonds with the other two, both boys would find it very hard to fight him. But, with his mind, he'd know the risks of being a missing-nin and would not want to.

And their co-interest bond with each other would be one caused by mutual feelings for Yasha, so their teamwork with just Sasuke and Naruto together would suffer greatly too. Every time they'd look at each other they'd want Yasha in front of them on a subconscious level. It would drive them nuts.

But if Kakashi ignored the suspicion, ignored the dark glints of intelligence and the wavering unease he felt when he glanced at the boy's black eyes – he could work with this team. And he knew the three would get stronger, and their team bonds, however dependent on Yasha, would be strong too.

It wouldn't completely be a team _he_ led, though.

Kakashi had his job cut out for him ensuring Yasha was disciplined – the boy was laidback but played only on negative traits Kakashi himself had, while being nice and thoughtful, such as the bento earlier. It was a passive-aggressive way of snubbing Kakashi's flaws while appearing friendly. Subconsciously, it was saying 'I'll work with you if you clean up'. It was telling Kakashi what to do.

To clients, Yasha came off as a pleasant boy, laidback, smooth with words, and capable. With Naruto he became a strong, older brother or perhaps father figure; with Sasuke, he became a hole to fill what Itachi had left behind and the boy subconsciously craved; someone who had an aura of power but achievable power at that. And with Kakashi, he became an imitator, mildly irritating due to how obvious it was. Late, talented, sensitive to his teammates' emotions, mildly rebuking, and an Uchiha lookalike – oh, Kami-sama, he was turning into Obito and Rin mixed together.

Kakashi frowned, even as he absentmindedly read the page. Yasha was talented, that was for sure, managing to fill that gap in Kakashi. He had filled the gap in all three other members of his team, and was slowly becoming a part of them. He hadn't even met Kakashi a few days back.

And what was worse… it was _working_. Kakashi knew he wouldn't be able to resist that Rin/Obito gap being filled, without direct hostility and hypocrisy that would distance _all_ his genin away from him. How could he protest against lateness when he was late?

Yasha hadn't adopted an Icha Icha habit yet, but then again, Kakashi was well in his rights to tell him off for that due to age. The brunette would've thought of that anyway. Plus, it wasn't exactly a positive image enhancer.

Any refusal of Rin-like kindness (bar politely) would give Yasha ammo to separate Kakashi from 'the team', and he would become leader in all but name while Kakashi would become disrespected and distanced from the rest of the genin, for being hostile and unreasonable to someone both other members respected.

Come to think of it, Yasha was simulating the Kakashi from back then too. Kakashi had been a jounin and squad leader, on the mission where the rest of his teammates were lower ranks. It hadn't turned out well, but nonetheless he had a higher rank and leadership skills according to the jounin exam.

If Kakashi played his cards right, Yasha could _only_ become second-in-command of the team. Kakashi had to pull Yasha into a relationship where the brunette would look to him for advice and guidance, much like Naruto/Sasuke did to Yasha. Since Yasha would be smart enough to respect Kakashi's skills already, the jounin could just play off that, and it wouldn't turn into a conflict between two-leader team; all three would turn to Kakashi first.

But, when it came to relatability, a member of the peer group was just much closer, emotionally; and although Kakashi had him in mission experience and things he could teach, Yasha was beyond adept at socialising, and more than capable of playing the long game…

"Damnit, Naruto! You don't hold brats upside-down!" Yasha's voice broke into his musings. Kakashi blinked up to see Naruto was dangling the baby upside-down away from him with an expression of disgust.

"She pooped herself! I can't even…" Naruto found the baby pulled out of his hands.

"So change her, you dolt!" Yasha turned her back upright, pinning the baby on his shoulder with practised ease. "With babies, you have to support their head, keep them upright, use slow and gradual movements, then…" he trailed off when he saw the two other boys giving him incredulous looks.

Kakashi blinked. Practised ease?

Yasha tutted at them and found a changing mat. Kakashi watched closely – Yasha did it very carefully and precisely, not bothered by unhappy squirming nor the chance of extra pee. He was used to it from _somewhere_, that was for sure, and whether it was because Yasha was good at intuition, manipulation or otherwise… he had Miyako's nappy changed, butt wiped, didn't even flinch at the smell that both other boys recoiled at, and even had her quieted in about three minutes.

Impressive.

And needless to say, that only enforced his big-brother/father figure in the two boys' eyes. Sasuke frowned a lot more, probably trying to work out how someone could coo at a baby while giving off a scary aura. In all honesty, the jounin was equally perturbed the baby wasn't scared.

When they arrived, the baby had been screaming its head off. Now that Kakashi thought back, that stopped as soon as Yasha started soothing it. Maybe it was initially scared of him but trusted him once he did that? There were a lot of kids with powerful parents and a powerful chakra presence to match.

"Naruto…" Yasha began, his tone icy calm, "…if you hold a baby the wrong way, you _will_ kill it. They don't have enough muscle power or control to hold their head up."

"I get it!" Naruto yelped, retreating into another room from Yasha's dark aura.

Sasuke hid a smile behind his hand.

Yasha, meanwhile, gazed down at the baby. She gazed back, holding onto his finger with a surprisingly strong grip.

He wasn't sure, since he didn't exactly have a way to tell, but these insects were far more than subconscious control. It was more fundamental than that. The babies sensed his emotions without him needing to speak a word. If Yasha's emotions were comforting and relaxed, they would fall quiet. If he was angry, they would look scared, or start crying. He had ample time to test this with Etsuko and Tsuyoshi, who were roughly two months and six months old now.

Animals didn't think in a language like people (bar those of the Summon variety), and didn't have human level of intelligence, but still reacted to him in a big way. If it wasn't intelligence, what was it? Primal instinct? Extra perceptivity?

Something like that.

"Naruto, get back in here!" Yasha barked.

The blond peered around the corner. "Yasha, I…"

"NOW!"

Sasuke watched in amusement as Naruto rocketed back, and had the baby thrust into his hands.

"Now take care of her. _Properly,_" Yasha stressed with a glare. "You don't get away with responsibility that easily."

Sasuke snickered and flinched as Yasha's gaze turned to him. "You're next, Sasuke."

"What?!"

* * *

Kakashi nodded as they collected the signature for babysitting. "Well, Yasha, any more surprises?"

"Endless numbers of them," Yasha assured him.

The jounin smirked slightly. "Well, ducklings, someone needs a fence repainted, and then we're done for the day."

"Let's go!" Naruto whooped.

"Hmph," Sasuke grunted his enthusiasm, or lack thereof.

Yasha imitated him and began to strut leaning back a good few degrees in a mockery of Sasuke's proud gait. Sasuke ignored him.

"I'll paint the whole thing with Kage Bunshin!" Naruto exclaimed cheerfully.

"No, Naruto," Kakashi told him.

"What? Why not?!"

"Teamwork," Kakashi replied simply.

Yasha gave up on mocking a non-respondent Sasuke, and looked thoughtful. "How does this translate to ninja skills?"

"Fluidity in movement and the ability to disguise as a civilian," Kakashi made up on the spot.

"I think Naruto should do it by himself. He needs the handicap," Yasha said with a grin.

"What are you saying, teme?" Naruto rounded on him.

Kakashi tuned out the two bickering, until he found Naruto bawling on the path animatedly.

"What happened?" the jounin asked blankly.

"He's on washing up for the week, sensei. He has a differing opinion about the arrangement," Yasha informed him, with a wide grin that said volumes about how much Naruto's tears were affecting him.

"Naruto, get up, you're a genin, not a two-year-old," Kakashi pressed him disinterestedly.

"Plenty of genin cry," Yasha pointed out. "Uchiha Madara cried when his little brother died."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at him. Unless he was a good couple of hundred years old he wouldn't know that.

"Uchiha Madara?" Sasuke repeated confusedly, eyes assessing Yasha's expression, which provided no clues.

"Yeah. He's still alive, you know."

"Are you making that up, Yasha-kun?" Kakashi drawled, rather definite that he was.

"Maybe." Yasha grinned. _'What kind of kid wouldn't cry when their brothers died? I read that he had deceased brothers from the history book. The guy with the __**nickname**__ 'Madara' is alive, though. Beats me if it's the real one.'_

"Is Madara the person I can summon?" Naruto asked, pulling out the summoning scroll and waving it. He was mostly clueless on history.

"Maybe." Yasha resisted the temptation to scream at him about revealing strengths and make the reveal's impact worse. This was Naruto's team, after all. Although Sasuke might be too stoic and Kakashi too lazy for their own good.

"You have a summoning scroll, Naruto?" Kakashi queried, a bit perturbed. Those things were advanced fuuinjutsu – which equated to expensive.

"Yeah!" Naruto grinned, unfurling it.

Kakashi's eye shot over the seal. _'Darkness? You can't summon darkness.'_ He resisted the urge to reveal his Sharingan and read the real chakra-enforced kanji.

Sasuke inspected it a bit more closely, leading Naruto to pull it away possessively, and the two started wrestling for it.

"Don't activate it, Naruto!" Yasha warned him hastily as the two tugged at it.

Kakashi hummed in thought. "That's an advanced scroll, Yasha-san. Where did you get the cash for it?"

"It was sponsored, so I got it for free."

"How much do they normally cost, Kaka-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"About fifteen thousand ryou."

Cue jaw drop from the blond, and an eye-widening from Sasuke. _'No reaction from Yasha. Interesting.'_ Kakashi swiped the scroll from Naruto's hands and analysed it. "This one looks more complicated… you won't be able to use it if you're cloned, for example."

"Oh, really?" Naruto said in dismay, pausing his attempts to get it back and scooting around so he could see where Kakashi was pointing.

"Yeah. If you're holding the scroll and use Kage Bunshin, neither the original nor the copy's scrolls will work."

"How do you know?" Sasuke asked curiously.

"I'm not an expert with fuuinjutsu, but this part…" Kakashi tapped the capacitor-buffer sub-seal with a finger, all three boys looking over his arms at the scroll, "I've seen it before, it's an anti-duplication measure. If a scroll has that, and it's copied, none of the copies or the original will work."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi shrugged. "I told you, I'm no expert. I know several fuuinjutsu seals, and how to make them, but I don't know the craft all that well. It's a good way to stop enemies trying to copy your scroll and pretend they've returned it."

"How?" Naruto asked cluelessly.

"Well, if you make a clone now, and the clone gives me their cloned scroll, once the clone dispels the scroll I have dispels too," Kakashi droned, nodding at Yasha to finish off.

Yasha smirked. "Remember when I stole the bells off him during the bell test the first time? Then he dispelled and the bells I stole from the clone vanished?"

"Oh, yeah!" Naruto instantly made sense of the concept by applying some experience with it.

"Basically, this is set to summon…" Kakashi tapped the large centre kanji.

"Darkness?" Naruto said, perturbed.

Yasha shrugged at their puzzled looks. "What can I say, the summon is a badass."

Kakashi rolled the scroll back up and handed it back. "It looks like it's linked to your blood, Naruto-kun. You'll just have to channel a large amount of chakra to activate it."

"How large?" Naruto asked thoughtfully.

Kakashi hummed. "Depending on what the target really is… up to a third of what you've got, so don't drain your reserves too much."

Naruto nodded. "And what happens if someone else activates it?"

"It burns itself to pieces," Kakashi replied, smirking slightly under his mask as Naruto wrapped his arms protectively around the scroll, his protective glare at Sasuke intensifying. "So I would keep an eye on it during battle as well, since enemies can destroy it easily."

"Hai, sensei!" Naruto nodded, his normal goofy grin returning as he tucked the scroll away. "Hey, Yasha-kun! Race you to the house!"

"What house?" Yasha asked, making the blond skid to a halt and scratch his head.

"Dobe." Sasuke couldn't resist jibing.

Yasha scowled at him. "Oi, Sasuke, don't start insulting my teammate. I'll beat you up."

Naruto grinned but looked confused at the defence.

Sasuke unreservedly took the bait, still wanting a spar with Yasha. "Pah," he scoffed dismissively, "You couldn't beat me if I had my hands tied behind my back."

Yasha looked surprised at Sasuke's response. "_Really?"_ he asked incredulously, calling his bluff. "You're going to say that?"

Sasuke felt a pang of unease. It wouldn't mean anything if Yasha won when Sasuke was restricted like that, but it would be humiliating. On the other hand, it'd be humiliating to take back his boast. "Yeah," he said with all the certainty he could muster.

Yasha grinned. "Fine, then, let's do it. I'll call your bluff. And I know for a fact I can beat you without even moving a muscle, if I use my bloodline."

"Not in the village, Yasha-kun," Kakashi reminded him.

Sasuke grinned. He had a way out of the humiliation now. "Fine, I'll fight with no hands, and you have to fight without moving."

"Hmm…" Yasha looked thoughtful for a minute, and then his watch beeped. He frowned. "Well, maybe we can do it some other day when I don't have a stomach bug."

"I thought the insects took care of those?" Kakashi asked curiously.

"I thought so too, but I guess some can slip past them." Yasha pretended to be in thought. "Maybe they're trying to keep my immune system up. 'A calm sea never made a skilful sailor', you know."

"Wassat mean?" The metaphor sailed right over Naruto's blond locks.

"I mean if my immune system doesn't have to fight anything, when it eventually does, it'll be overwhelmed by it." Yasha inspected his blank expression and rephrased with a roll of his eyes. "It's like you never fighting the D-Ranks to A-Ranks because your teammates do, then you suddenly have to take care of an A-Rank. You'll be blown away. Lack of experience, and power."

"I get it." Naruto grinned.

"Uh… hold up, guys, I think the stomach bug's hitting me again."

He sat down with a thump at the side of the street, arms wrapped around his stomach. Naruto flitted around him, looking slightly panicky, while Kakashi and Sasuke both watched curiously.

Yasha suddenly jerked and vomited part of his lunch, narrowly missing his own legs. Kakashi hastily reduced the flow of chakra to his nose, while the other boys just looked disgusted.

"Ah, shit," Yasha cursed, taking ragged breaths as he processed his shadow clone's memories. Not wanting to be surprised by a sudden dispel, he had set his watch to beep every hour – the clone was set to go a few minutes after 4pm.

Apparently, the clone's chakra drain from being maintained for hours had been quite minor, despite the cost of creation and the level of technique. Almost definitely the swarms' pathway maintenance to thank for that. They wrapped around the chakra inside his pathways, hiding them, and forcing them to maintain a reliable state.

On the off chance the released clone's swarms didn't return to him, he had the clone leave the kids' place and go a few streets away before it dispelled.

The clone had changed five nappies and chatted with the toddlers during the multiple hours there. It had also eaten, albeit only brunch bars. The brats were still entertained by the books and toys there, and Keito was doing a good job of keeping them occupied as well.

_'Well, it looks like I can keep a shadow clone for a lot longer than I estimated, thanks to the swarms. Maybe a full day, maybe even longer. That's definitely going to help. And the nausea is less, although it still made me puke. The swarms are adjusting to the chakra splits/combines… or maybe it's me who's hardening to it.' _He spat the acid out of his mouth, pulling out a bottle of water and washing his mouth out.

"Are you okay, Yasha-kun?" His blond housemate was flapping his hands around frantically. "You threw up this morning too!"

"I'm good." Yasha stood up slowly, his stomach thankfully starting to settle. His first Kage Bunshin had left him completely ill for a couple of minutes, and just been for testing. The second had been this morning, sent to the kids' place. Right now, this third time, was the sensation of that second one dispelling, leaving him ill for about ten seconds and partially vomiting.

So, Kage Bunshin was nowhere near usable in battle _just_ yet, and he couldn't use it too much under Kakashi's watch. All it would take was Kakashi's Sharingan exposed while the chakra returned and the jounin would start to question. His pathways might not be visible, but maybe there was something visible that changed, or something that could be sensed. Yasha didn't have a doujutsu, so he couldn't know for sure.

If Yasha didn't tell why he had a predictable illness or was making shadow clones, and he couldn't, Kakashi would start to watch him. And he was a highly experienced tracker; ignoring the fact the clone would probably smell of vomit, there wasn't a lot Yasha could do to throw him off. He couldn't even body-flicker.

Yasha had to try his hardest not to raise suspicion. And vomiting wasn't exactly _subtle_.

Still, the chakra cost of Kage Bunshin had decreased. It didn't take 50% of his chakra just to split in two – it was more like 40% now. Both clone and original had 30% of their total capacity – the 40% going in Kage Bunshin chakra cost, and the remaining 60% divided. Either swarms' lesser resistance, or his own chakra control/experience that caused that.

"Yasha-kun, if you're sick, it's fine to stay at home," Kakashi informed him half-heartedly. "We're not in a war."

"Bah." Yasha waved him off. "Shinobi Rule 3."

_'A shinobi must be ready and alert at all times,'_ they all thought simultaneously.

"Let's carry on." Yasha gestured, making a poor attempt at washing the vomit to the side of the road with water from a bottle.

Kakashi used a C-Rank Suiton and swirled it to the side properly, and the three moved on.

* * *

"It's a good thing this is the evening," Yasha muttered to himself. Like always, he sweated ridiculously when he did physical activity. It was irritating as all hell. Not the wetness, not really the smell, but the prickling irritating feeling of his pores. It was like pins and needles, except… there was nothing funny, it was just irritating.

Kakashi had opted out of painting it with them – big surprise there. Yasha didn't mind painting itself… except for the drops, the heat, the flies…

_'Wait… flies? Gross,' _Yasha grimaced, swatting and flicking his hair to the side.

He sighed. _'Well, I guess I have to increase my endurance, and the easiest way to do that – stop whining like a wuss. How am I going to be Flee On Sight and sipping tea on a battlefield when I can't even stomach some flies? There's gonna be a bunch around the corpses 'n' all.'_

He looked over at Naruto and blinked. He was covered in paint and brushing it at the speed of light. And Sasuke was also rushing, albeit with more care.

They must have made some sort of challenge while he wasn't paying attention. They got to work fast.

_'Forget that mess.'_ Yasha scowled. _'I'll do my patch at my own damn pace.'_

"Done!" Naruto crowed, jumping to his feet, and staggering, tripping over the bucket of paint and somehow kicking it towards Yasha.

Yasha watched it make a path through the air, and his chakra twisted in a Henge. In half a second he had vanished and the mostly-empty pot was mysteriously upended on Naruto's head.

Kakashi glanced up at the sudden movement, checked his watch and turned another page in his book nonchalantly.

No point crying over spilt paint.

Or moving, for that matter.

"Half an hour left, ducklings," he called over the indignant yelling.

"Your mum has half an hour left," Yasha muttered under his breath, walking back within viewing distance.

"Sounds like you want to finish up on your own, Yasha-kun?"

Yasha frowned, subconsciously adjusting his knowledge of Kakashi's hearing capacity. "I _can_ finish it on my own, but I do things carefully. Measure once carefully, cut once, don't waste fifty years on it. Whereas these two… have decided to paint the grass and ruined my work as well."

(Meanwhile Sasuke was eyeing the distance Yasha had travelled instantly in disbelief.)

Kakashi hummed in assent, thinking about how to respond to the scene. It wasn't his nature to keep the three kids in check with something ultimately this meaningless, and apparently not Yasha's either.

But if he let Yasha became the restraining factor, the kid would cement as the elder sibling role. Whether it was deliberate or subconscious, that was what he was becoming. Not a lot of genin could handle caring for kids and doing multiple D-Ranks on the same day he had a stomach bug.

Speaking of which… who in their right mind did a rapid movement technique when their stomach was upset? Something was off here. You can't _forget_ about a physical sensation, especially one that makes you throw up. Yasha had shown no difference in behaviour, but it was very real vomit… without cause, in the middle of the day. There was no sort of attack to trigger it, and while Kakashi had pretended to be ignoring the idiocies around him, he had been observing carefully.

Yasha had not eaten anything that could be off. He'd eaten his own bento and bought something from a store for lunch around 1pm, both of which smelled fine. Then at 4pm he vomited half of the latter up.

A slow reaction to something? No, that didn't seem right, if the swarms were capable of detecting poison, they would definitely detect something Yasha's biology reacted to. And the poison from the T&amp;I was removed by the swarms without any extra stomach contents included. Which meant the swarms weren't the cause; so it was just Yasha or some third party.

Kakashi's eyes slid back from the carnage on the fence to Yasha.

But what could cause it? It wasn't his digestive system. And there was no visible attack.

An attacker would find it hard to get one past Kakashi, even on a day where Kakashi wasn't watching their target with an air of suspicion. Plus, Yasha hadn't reacted like it was a shock. He acted like he _expected_ it. If there was a third party, it was consensual.

Vomiting on demand wasn't _completely_ useless, e.g. if you ingested poison or wanted to hide something indigestible in your stomach. The first motive was obviously pointless to Yasha, due to the swarms' maintenance duty, poison wasn't a problem.

Which left the second motive; for Yasha, his blackened chakra networks around his stomach would hide the contents, even the Byakugan wouldn't be able to see it. Hiding things internally was a strategically wise move.

But if Yasha willingly swallowed something indigestible, it would either be to hide or destroy it, and either way he wouldn't want it on the ground for Team 7 to see. So he would have analysed his toss-up earlier, to make sure he hadn't exposed his secrets, or done it in a toilet unobserved.

He was on the way from the Yamanaka house at the time, he would have done it then if he had some sort of control over when he threw up. Which meant he meant to do it in public.

So… Yasha wasn't attacked… he expected it, but he hadn't swallowed anything to cause it… it wasn't poison or seals… was he upsetting his own muscles for sympathy? It wasn't a good impression to make on the first day past the genin test, to come off as fragile or weak. What brought that on?

Why seem weak the day after the genin test? Was he trying for sympathy for someone? Yasha ought to know Sasuke wouldn't respect a display of weakness, and that Kakashi didn't care about minor problems like a stomach bug. And Naruto doted over Yasha anyway. But Team 7 was the only people to see it.

Who did that leave? Was he planning on his sickly pale appearance for something later? No, if that was the case, surely he wouldn't eat (lest he regain colour in his face). Right now he looked healthy.

Kakashi frowned under his mask. The boy was an enigma. He decided to trail him later today, to figure out who he was going to play the sympathy card on. Last thing he wanted was some sort of security risk due to someone taking pity on him. And it'd at least explain a little of what went on in Yasha's head.

* * *

Needless to say, the fence owner was not pleased her paint was mostly on the grass. Yasha was frankly surprised they got paid at all. Maybe Kakashi had promised to do it properly after the team was gone. And maybe the paint was laced with some chakra-phobic chemical that would make cleaning the grass a breeze…

At any rate, it was the end of the day, the sun was beginning to set, lighting up Konoha in a pale red light, and they had just left the Konoha Mission Desk. And they all paused and turned to Kakashi, who was scribbling on the mission report dossier. He looked up at them.

"Alright, it's 6:22 pm by my watch. Not bad for a first day. Yasha, Naruto, Sasuke…" he handed all of them little tearaway slips for cash, "Just go to any bank and they'll exchange it for hard cash."

His gaze flickered to Naruto and a slight frown appeared. "They should pay you the exact amount on the slip, nothing less, no sort of tax or anything. Some places are dodgy and will charge you, so make sure you report them if they do that. Before you peeve off any bank staff, I'll warn you that you can't use Henge before you enter; they have seals on the buildings that will stop you from using it. So be nice."

He took in all three of them. Sasuke pocketed the slips without as much as a glance, clearly money wasn't an issue. Naruto gazed at his with a wide grin, obviously wanting to bronze and frame it. Yasha held up all three D-Ranks in sight, forehead creased, evidently totalling up the money in his head. Easy to see who was paying the rent for his place.

Predictable enough. "Meet me back here at 6am tomorrow." Kakashi waved and dispelled.

Sasuke huffed at the chakra smoke, glanced at the other two, then waved disinterestedly and strode off. Naruto turned to Yasha, who was frowning at his slips.

It was plenty for a place, and plenty for food for two… but plus another place, shinobi weapons, food for eight kids, and toys?

With Yasha's estimate before he rescued the Uchiha, it was doable, with some spare.

_But_, compared to the _actual_ cost since he rescued them… this was undercutting it. If Team 7 didn't do Monday to Friday, and at least 3 D-Ranks per day, _regularly_… he definitely wouldn't have a hope of affording it. As it was, he'd have to cut back on purchases. No Ichiraku for Naruto or new toys for the kids for the foreseeable future.

No, actually… what the _hell_ was he meant to do if he had a mission that placed him out of Konoha on rent day? Wasn't there some long C-Ranks that took a month? The only sure-fire way was to pay in advance. And Keito obviously needed food money for the two months as well.

Could Keito even cook food for 2 months? What if he gave them some sort of serious food infection? He'll have to train him, but he didn't really have cash for spare ingredients on failed cooking attempts. Plus, no one would be watching the kids while he was teaching him… well, he could use a clone, but he didn't want Keito to find out he could use it. If the kiddie-base was compromised, they'd come for Yasha, and Yasha's best method of defence was pretending to be caught.

He had to get at least two months' pay and food money ready before the team started C-Ranks, or there might be a repossession on the kids' place.

Thank Kami that even if the douche who sold Naruto the house at a higher price decided to repossess in Team 7's absence, the audit team wouldn't find the kids. The only thing in that house Yasha cared about was the autographs from the two Uchiha pacifists. But he didn't have to worry about arson; the building was connected to innocent civilians' homes who would raise the alarm.

The instruction scroll was still at the orphanage. He needed to destroy it really, but it was the only thing that he had to tell him where Yūrei fitted in, if he was ever subtly mentioned, and what a new character's weaknesses were. It was best to keep it there since no orphan was ever likely to set foot in a cursed Kyuubi kid's ex-bedroom. Not until the Fourth Shinobi War, probably plenty of orphans around then.

Yay, happy thoughts.

Anyway, the other house was rented at a different estate agent, way across town. With the Uchiha massacre, chances are they would have forgotten all about Yasha. But if Yasha was barely scraping by, there was no way he'd be able to form two months' margin. And there was a kid waiting on him to take care of.

"Naruto-kun, good work today." Yasha watched him preen and smirked. "If you didn't throw paint buckets at my head, maybe it'd be even better."

Instantly the blond deflated. "I didn't… it was just an…"

Yasha cleared his throat. "I _get_ you're some amazing ninja. But since when do ninja paint fences? I've never heard of the Fourth Hokage being known for his amazing painting skills, although chances are he had to do it as a genin. So… grow up a little."

"But Sasuke was going to beat me!" the hot-headed blond insisted.

"And?"

"And…" Naruto's voice trailed off as he turned away. "I want him to…"

Yasha blinked, confused for once. "Go on…"

The next murmur from the blond was barely audible and the brunette scowled. "Well fine, if you don't want to tell me…"

Naruto gritted his teeth. "To acknowledge me!"

"Acknowledge you?"

"Yes! He's top of the class and he's got this…" Naruto waved his hands frantically, while his vocabulary failed him, "…he acts like he's the best!"

The Death Release user grinned. "He's an Uchiha. That's their birthright."

Naruto paused and frowned at Yasha. "To be the best?"

Yasha shook his head. "No, to _act_ like they are. The Uchiha are so arrogant the strongest of them literally went insane and killed the entire rest of them for extra power, and no one thought it was bizarre. I told Sasuke that yesterday."

"That's true… but…" Naruto scratched his head in confusion.

Yasha could almost pity the kid as he tried to psychoanalyse his own brain. Yasha had been doing that for ages, and he was so used to it he could get the root cause of any action, and all parts of his human vs animal nature and emotions that wanted to do it, in a matter of a minute or two. He never had to worry about reconsidering decisions, because he thought every one through so much he knew it was the best choice he could have made.

Once a decision was made, that was it. Worry about it was pointless. But, if you were smart, you thought things through. If you do the 'think things through' part _carefully_, you only have do to it once, and you might as well detach yourself from any self-pity or regret if it turned to out to be poor decision; after all, you made the best choice you could. No one apologises for doing their best, and no point agonising that you didn't know a game-changing factor at the time.

That was Yasha's motto: think it through carefully, and never consider it afterwards. Hindsight is always 20/20, but you can't blame someone for walking into a pole if they're blind.

"Naruto, it's fine if you want the prodigy of a year, someone who came from a gene pool of arrogant idiots with ego and emotional trauma problems to acknowledge your strength. He's strong, I get it. But if he's the one who makes you act a certain way, isn't he the one who's leading you? Isn't he the one that's stronger by you acknowledging he's a competition?"

"Huh?" Naruto blinked at him, mental gears jamming up.

"Trust me," Yasha said with a grin, "Act like he's not even worth challenging and _you'll_ be the one leading _him_ into challenging _you_." He paused, glancing to the side. "Now you need to head home, I gotta see someone and get lunch."

"Uhhh, right. See ya tonight."

"Yeah, maybe." Yasha shrugged, taking up a slow jog, knowing Naruto was frowning disappointedly after him. Kid was clingy.

Halfway there, by chance, he glanced to the side as he passed an alley, and skidded to a halt, his mind. "The fuck?!"

He stepped back just to see a small figure dart around the corner.

"The fuck is Naoki… _is_ that her?" Yasha slammed on a low-weight Henge and blew through the alley, skidding out the other end, and staring around. "Keito is in _deep_ shit if he's letting them run around like little twats drawing attention."

His gaze shot up and down the street, but there was no little girl in sight. The pedestrians glanced at him perturbed. Finally it fell on a girl some distance away, who was grinning at an adult talking to her.

It wasn't Naoki. She was the same height and build, though, but she was wearing clothes he didn't recognise and a different hairstyle. The hair was a slightly different colour too.

Yasha released a huge sigh of relief, but his subconscious still wasn't happy, so his frown stayed. He wanted to check on the kids. If he couldn't be _certain_ they were staying put, then he'd have to take more drastic measures to ensure they stayed in the house. Otherwise, if they were compromised, the kiddie-base would just become a trap he'd unwittingly walk right-

His thoughts were interrupted by a yell. "Yasha-_kun~!_ Come meet my team!"

Yasha turned, still frowning. "Oh, Ino-chan. Hey Shikamaru-kun, Chouji-kun, Asuma-san."

"Hello, Yasha-kun. I've heard a lot about you." Asuma grinned, rolling the cigarette in his mouth.

Yasha groaned inwardly as he looked up at him. _'I bet it's Ino who's talking shit about me.'_

Since he knew Asuma after he got him hooked up with Kurenai, he switched to a smirk instead. "I heard a lot about _you_, too, Asuma-san."

Ino blinked and looked between the two with a sudden smirk. "Oiya? You two know each other?"

Yasha sighed deeply and rubbed his face. "Oi, you two. Ino's a little rumour mill. Don't talk about anything near her."

Shikamaru nodded. "Yep. We know. It's troublesome."

"Oi!"

As the three began to bicker, down the street a toddler strode away, still smiling up at the gushing adult. She went around the corner, waved goodbye to the adult – the one Yasha falsely assumed was her parent – and ran for it.

Ducking into another alley, she let the Henge go, revealing a shocked-looking Naoki Uchiha.

"That was close," she breathed, clutching at her toddler heart running a million miles per hour.

"What was?" a voice asked from behind her.

She spun around. A familiar silver-haired man gazed back at her placidly.

"Oh shit."

* * *

"Are you meant to be a toddler?"

The toddler ignored him, glancing in all directions. Kakashi frowned at her reaction. She knew Yasha, somehow. And she had the mouth of Anko. Her scent was odd, a mix of toddlers and sweat. An orphanage?

And she was looking for an escape route. Ran away from home?

"Who are you?" he asked bluntly.

She looked back at him, and giggled, walking closer. "I'm uh…" her voice trailed off as she started whispering.

He knelt down curiously. She looked back, mouth went to his ear… and her foot smashed straight into his crotch.

Poof!

Naoki grinned and ran like a bat out of hell, heading into the crowd. If she wasn't very clever, Kakashi would send another clone and he'd catch up. She crossed a couple of streets and kept going… she didn't want to be the one who ruined Yasha's secret.

* * *

The original winced. That took some nerve. She couldn't be more than four years old, and her chakra levels were slightly larger than normal for her age, and that level wasn't suppressed – ever since that time with Yasha he had started using Sharingan more often with Yasha's associates.

A runaway kid a bit nervous of strangers? No… that didn't seem right. If you were nervous of strangers you weren't bold enough to assault them unprovoked. Kakashi might look a bit odd, but he was still in jounin attire and they were right next to a street full of people, she couldn't have felt _that_ scared of him.

The Sharingan spotted something else, though; dark particles in her chakra, and quite a bit of them. Roughly less than Naruto had, and the same location; a large cluster in the brain and heart, along with some more near some light bruises she'd probably got from playing.

Judging from how Sasuke was only slightly infected by the particles, and Naruto had a lot of them, it was likely they released into nearby people gradually. Kakashi really didn't like it, but even _he_ had some knocking about. Barely any though – being the two had only been near each other for a day and a bit – but he still didn't like it. The more time Yasha spent near other people, the more the particles built up in them.

The Sharingan couldn't fully see swarms, though. The individual insects were too small, and moved in and out of the edges of the swarms, so you couldn't even count them with the Sharingan.

Conclusion: This girl and Yasha spent a lot of time around each other.

If Yasha wasn't being annoyingly twitchy and making Asuma put his guard up, Kakashi would have just re-cloned and sent another after the toddler to watch her as well. He'd be noticed if he cloned now, and there was a good chance Yasha would pick up on Asuma's reaction.

But whoever she was, she was on his find-later list. Scent wouldn't work, the crowd was too thick, but maybe later tonight he might spot her around. He could put a word in at ANBU headquarters, if it came to that.

Yasha was apparently on teasing terms with Ino. That was interesting. And she was interested in him in an obviously romantic fashion.

As Kakashi listened on, he realised it was apparent they _were_ actually a thing. So, Yasha had Ino, the Yamanaka clan heiress, as a girlfriend. He also spent a considerable amount of time around a toddler, one who was surprisingly rude, aggressive, and manipulative… at least from first impressions of her.

That explained where his proficiency with the babysitting mission had come from. He _did_ have experience with young kids. But why the toddler acted in a decidedly… _adult_ way, yet was not wearing a Henge…

She had just released one for a start, and even if she was wearing two layers – which was unprecedented – the Sharingan could see if there was one. Even if the doujutsu couldn't see the original person behind the Henge, chakra was being consumed by the Henge technique, and that was visible to the trained eye. Well, trained doujutsu.

So, she was a real toddler. And an odd one. What was her connection to Yasha? Was she a particularly mischievous kid who he babysat, one who kept running off on her own? That would explain why he lost his composure when he saw her.

His killing intent must have tripled in that instant. No wonder Asuma was on the alert.

On the topic of Henge: apparently Yasha couldn't see through Henge. All genjutsu, he could see through, but apparently not a Henge. Technically, Henge _was_ a ninjutsu, since it _literally_ modified your body's chakra layout, it didn't make an _illusion_ of doing so. But interesting to note.

From memory, Inoichi was very protective of his daughter. Did he know about Yasha's relationship with her? Should Kakashi raise it with him? Like any man with secrets, Kakashi didn't particularly like talking to people who could read things from him without him knowing it, and Inoichi was skilled at interrogation.

But if Yasha was a risk, Ino was part of that risk. Inoichi could only appreciate the warning… but it may put Yasha in a spot. Judging from their conversation, it was almost like Ino had coerced Yasha into becoming her boyfriend. Which was _very_ interesting. The circumstances for a master manipulator to be manipulated could only be convoluted.

He could reveal himself and talk to Ino… but he barely talked to people at all, especially young kids, so he wouldn't know how to ask without being a stranger prying into her affairs. He didn't really want Inoichi going ape on his student, and he didn't want to Sharingan-hop into a Yamanaka mind. Even if he got away with it, she or her father would notice sooner or later.

(Unbeknownst to Kakashi, Yasha had bemoaned about the identity of Ino being from a mind-reading clan… but because she had that identity, it turned away Kakashi from mind-probing her; which in turn meant the secret of the kids was kept. So it being Ino was actually a benefit to Yasha, ironically enough.)

Kakashi wasn't sure what Inoichi thought of him. Of course, Ibiki disliked him for the biscuit incident, but Inoichi just thought he was a weird individual. But he had guarded Inoichi during Lion's head hopping not too long ago – off-duty, at Inoichi's request. Inoichi owed him one.

Once Yasha was done here he'll send a clone Inoichi's way.

"Shikamaru, you know I'm not that good at shōgi."

"You were three moves away from beating me last time!"

"Three moves and losing is the same as twenty moves and losing. In war there's no prize for second place."

Shikamaru frowned. "You were half-asleep and you still came that close. I want a rematch."

"I have a busy schedule now I'm doing D-Ranks."

"We're doing them too," Shikamaru poked a hole right through his excuse. "You've got just as much free time as I do."

Yasha's eyes narrowed. "I'll play with you when I have the time, Shikamaru-san, but right now I'm actually kinda stressed. If you'll excuse me."

Shikamaru looked surprised at the sudden flint in his tone as the other brunette stalked off. "Whoops."

Kakashi made a note: Yasha doesn't like his control being tested. He wanted things going his way and he doesn't like it when someone else tries to take control, even when it was over unimportant things.

"You know, this is the first time I've seen you so motivated," Ino considered. Her eyes sparkled with glee. "Don't tell me you're jealous?"

"Jealous of him having such a troublesome girl like you as a date?" the Nara shot her down with a scoff. "As if."

"Yasha is the type to speak his mind, it seems," Asuma considered out loud.

"My father is rather cautious of him," Shikamaru admitted. "He thinks Yasha is dangerous."

Ino preened a little. "He's a shinobi and my boyfriend, Shikamaru, of course he's dangerous!"

"No." Shikamaru glanced at her sharply. "Not _that_ sort of dangerous."

The team looked at him, Chouji pausing with his hand halfway to his mouth. Ino was taken aback.

The Nara's tone was stern. "Yasha is someone my father is _wary_ of. My father is someone who can freeze sixteen jounin in place and kill them in seconds, and he's a better strategist than I am. And he's wary of someone who just made _genin_."

"Shikamaru's father is commander of the Jounin," Asuma added thoughtfully. "Ino, I would respect his opinion above all others. He knows a threat when he sees one. You really should reconsider whether you want him as your boyfriend."

"Look, Yasha has _already_ saved my life. He's saved me _twice_, when he didn't have to both times," Ino fixed them with a glare. "Don't talk about him like that."

Shikamaru knew better than to get on the wrong side of Ino, so he didn't press the matter.

Ino, while putting up an indignant face, knew what she saw that night. Yasha had literally demonised in front of her. She had come to realise he might be two-faced… a manipulator. He took blackmail material and made it so she could never use it, true… and he said he could love any girl (she suppressed a blush) that day, but… did he mean he loved her?

He wasn't necessarily _in love_, fallen head-over-heels, but he could love her. It'd be hard to love someone who is threatening him and whatever those kids and his relationship with them meant to him, but he seemed to. Giving away your first kiss wasn't something done lightly.

Her heart started pounding when his grin and his cocky attitude in front of the red-cloud-wearing enemy came to mind. Even if he was someone sadistic, he plainly wouldn't do anything wrong to her… based on how he reacted to _that_. Maybe it wasn't the fact it was sexual but the fact _she_ was the target that made him lose it.

She wouldn't deny he was dangerous. He had always felt that way. Since she first saw him, the nagging sensation of suppressed danger lingered in her head. She used to think that was cool and pretty much expected… but was it really a good thing? She thought good ninja were meant to have an aura of danger.

Looking at the serious expression on Asuma's face, she was no longer sure. Once again, she had a mental disconnect between Yasha; a saviour, an attractive boyfriend, confident and assured; a demonised animal clawing at someone's body in a frenzied rage… and now a dangerous manipulator who was just winding her around his little finger using faked romance.

She decided to talk to her dad about his concerns when she got home. He knew how to analyse people, and he had warned her off Yasha… he knew something she had been blind to. And if he knew something about Yasha, she needed to know it too.

And then she would confront Yasha and demand the truth of those kids he was taking care of.

* * *

**AN:** Confront a manipulator who's already considered killing you and demand they tell you their secrets.

_Best. Idea. Evah._

Inoichi's going to find out something nasty from Kakashi, and Ino's going to talk to him. That's only going to make Yasha/Ino's lovey-dovey relationship all the more pleasant.

Not only that; Yasha wants to visit the kids and Kakashi's already resolved to stalk him. Thanks to Naoki.

And what's with Naoki, anyway? How's she escaped Keito and why is she running around? And why does she have a foul mouth? Is she really a toddler or are Kakashi's suspicions correct?

Don't miss the next exciting episode of Dragon Ball Z… I mean, Naruto. Faux-Naruto. With better character development. (Arguably.)

And, write me your comments: What do you think of Naoki? What's Yūrei doing? How many bowls of ramen does Naruto eat? What's gonna be Yasha's plan to gain cash for two months' leeway as he's only scraping by? How will Yasha react to Ino confronting him?

Markimoo is watching.


	35. People aren't that simple

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 35: People aren't that simple_**

* * *

**AN:** So, finally back. Dimension machine needed a few whacks. You wouldn't believe the amount of calibration this thing needs. A decimal place out and the whole thing slips and I see trees instead of thought patterns.

Anyway, situation: Naoki has just been spotted in public by Yasha, and Kakashi. She evaded both, but now Yasha isn't happy, and Kakashi is confused by an overly-aggressive toddler. Ino is finally starting to get suspicious of Yasha ('bout time, took nearly seven people to get her out of crush mode). Meanwhile Orochimaru is scheming in Akatsuki now Itachi has joined up, but Pein is onto Orochimaru like white is on a grain of rice on a polar bear in a snowstorm.

* * *

Yasha had no idea he was being followed, but he felt nervous all the same. The Naoki that turned out to be someone else had triggered him in one of the most obvious ways: He realised he wasn't as in control as he thought. He wasn't fully in control of the kids.

Don't get him wrong, he didn't exactly need them tied down on a bed and sedated to feel relaxed, but… this was dangerous. Not the fact that Naoki was out, because he had confirmed it wasn't her, but the fact he was fully capable of believing she _was_ out.

After all, there was little to stop the little tyke. The building the kids were in was not in brilliant condition. A toddler-sized hole wouldn't be too hard to find (or indeed make). And try as Keito might, he was _eight years old_. He couldn't watch six kids at once.

Of course, the easiest solution was to having a Kage Bunshin around them constantly. It'd make Yasha feel safest. But that meant being 24/7 awake via clone memories; it was the only real way to feel safe. But who knew what _that_ would do to his biology?

The brunette sighed, deciding to mull things over for a bit. He paused on his way to the kiddie base, and flopped onto a public bench, resting his head in his hands and rolling it around.

Paranoia was only natural when dealing with unknowns. Yasha knew the kids all of a month; that wasn't enough to predict them reliably. Kids at that age were unstable due to their personality not being fully developed yet, so it would take longer than most as well. They were mostly unknown.

He ran through the list of the Uchiha in his head, considering threats.

Keito was loyal to him; he recognised and bought the Itachi Be Watching threat. He respected Yasha for taking them out of the slaughterhouse of a compound and he didn't have any reason to betray someone who, as far as he was concerned, had risked his life and now his livelihood for; someone who was protecting and taking care of people he didn't actually have an obligation to.

As far as Keito was concerned, Yasha was incredibly kind. He also was shaken by the sight of the compound being closed. Keito wasn't a flight risk, or someone who wanted to leave the kids for much of any reason. He knew how easily they got into trouble.

No, Keito was fine. Loyal, cautious, and reliable, as far as eight-year-olds go. He did have an ego problem at the start, but thanks to Yasha's combination of manipulating skills – putting him on diaper duty, making him responsible for snot-nosed brats, intimidating with a kunai and KI, and being somewhat straight with him – Keito had mellowed out and lost most of his pride problem.

If he hadn't, yeah… someone who acts high-class put in a low-class home would have had a meltdown at some point. Yasha would have been forced to get rid of him. As in, permanently.

That just left the rest of the kids.

The babies presented the least problems; the six-month-old Tsuyoshi couldn't talk and he was barely starting to crawl, and the almost-two-months Etsuko was slowly settling in as well; and she wasn't even close to crawling. Neither of them were a problem in any way bar noise pollution, which Yasha had a noise-muffling seal for – and if it really came to the last of last resorts, sleep genjutsu.

Chances are that'd cause serious brain damage. Yasha would consider just discarding the kids to an orphanage early instead, if he was getting to the point he felt he had to use genjutsu.

So, the toddlers. Ryūji Uchiha was stubborn and assertive; he respected Yasha because Yasha's bloodline meant he could effortlessly intimidate him to all hell, but he didn't seem to want to leave the house. He was protective of his other clan members, which was funny because he was the youngest toddler there at two-and-a-half years old.

Takeshi Uchiha was Keito's younger brother; since Keito respected Yasha no end, a lot of it rubbed off on Takeshi too. He wouldn't do something stupid either. Takeshi did help Keito watch the others, but he wasn't really old enough to understand the full implications of things and be reliable enough.

There were a few problems all of them caused. **Firstly**, noise pollution; kids were selfish and noisy. Should the muffling seal and intimidation fail, Keito would have no response. Yasha could also try manipulation and sleep genjutsu, the latter of which would at best work and at worst cause damage.

**Secondly**, potential health problems. If they got a serious medical problem, Yasha couldn't get it treated easily. The odds of them spilling the beans on that their parents were 'gone' instead of Yasha actually babysitting them… too high. Forgetting the odds that they could have some sort of fever and blab anyway, kids blabbed enough as it was. They didn't form the mental connections to hide information that was secret. They wouldn't say their parents were gone, but they would look really odd when asked about their parents, or spill the beans by going a bit odd thinking about a question about their family.

However, Yasha was careful with hygiene, and Keito was also well educated on cleanliness, being an Uchiha. The kids never left the house, so no chance of disease from strangers. Yasha didn't get sick often anyway, thanks to the insects. As if the selfish little piranhas would let diseases live in their home.

**Thirdly**, money usage. Toys, rent, food, drink, etc., all added up. With Yasha's and Naruto's paychecks – Yasha was _so_ cashing in on the full lot Naruto was getting; the kid lived in his house and loved him to death, plus he had Uzumaki/Fourth Hokage inheritance – but that still wasn't enough, since the inheritance wouldn't be seen until Naruto was far older. Yasha would have some to spare, given their expenses, but it wasn't enough to build up any sort of safety margin. If there was just _one_ week without D-Ranks, someone (or more) would go hungry, and that was a serious concern.

He needed more income. Income that didn't involve being somewhere he could be seen. To an extent, working in the back room of a shop might work. The Hyuuga risk was there, but that depended on the areas they frequented; and it was probably impolite to leave Byakugan on publicly, or you might be considered a pervert.

Anyway, the **final** problem all the kids had was… cabin fever. If you're stuck in the same place too long, you start to get antsy to go outside and be free. Yasha couldn't do much to stop the kids wanting to leave the house, but he rarely took them out. He couldn't afford to; too many sightings and there was a problem, plus it poked holes in his 'Itachi will spot you' threat. Only Keito knew Henge, the rest were too young.

Which brought him to the final kids, the biggest problems: Michiko and Naoki Uchiha.

Michiko was completely reckless – she didn't drag others into her acts, but she just randomly did things regardless of risks involved. She was driven by impulse, and that was the problem. If she got it in her head to go daydream outside, climb a bookcase, or anything really, she would just do it.

Of course, she'd need a way to get outside, but she didn't really think things through. She took unnecessary risks, and to be frank, Keito and Yasha were constantly stopping her from doing things that were dangerous. If they weren't there she would have injured herself several times already.

Yasha hoped it was some sort of phase, because that didn't seem normal. She was intelligent enough, and very sensitive and kind to the other kids, but her risk assessment seemed zero.

Thankfully, she was totally addicted to strawberries, which made for an easy way to distract her out of things. She was just shy of three and a half years old (the oldest before Keito actually). She was a troublemaker, not out of intelligence, but just out of… recklessness. For a toddler, it shouldn't really be that surprising she wasn't a planner.

But that brought about the final character: Naoki Uchiha. Now that Yasha thought about it, she had asked several times to go outside, and complained a couple of times about how kids her age should be outside, running around and getting fresh air.

She was docile, careful, quiet, and she was clever. _Far_ too clever.

Her mental age was unnaturally high, and that unnerved Yasha… a _lot_. If it was revealed she was actually a classmate of Yasha undercover, Yasha would not have been at all surprised.

It would also not surprise him if she had somehow managed to evade Keito, slip out the house, and go exploring. Three-year-olds were meant to only speak basic sentences, but she seemed to have no problem with short conversations about morality and philosophy. Yasha rarely brought those up, though.

Naoki had instantly worked out Itachi wasn't crazy just from the simple fact Yasha had survived a meeting with him – while Yasha was in the middle of Itachi's target area, and said Itachi was on a killing spree.

It was so simple to work that out… but… she raised it too easily, too quickly. Something was weird about Naoki. Yasha could deal with smart people; he could deal with dumb people. But Naoki was a weird mix of the two; sometimes she behaved exactly like a toddler, other times she acted more like Shikamaru's age, and a Hyuuga at that; all disapproving and looking down on something like it was immature and they could do better than that.

Kids only three years and three months old shouldn't be anywhere near capable of that. Maybe she picked up the attitude from her parents, but her intelligence was uncanny. She was content to sit back and chew her way through books (on her own), casually observing everyone.

She didn't dismiss Yasha, she wasn't only interested in playing like the others, she seemed most interested in learning – about him. She rolled her eyes a lot, sighed a lot… it was disturbing.

She must be a crossbreed between Nara and Uchiha. Seriously.

Probably three quarters Nara.

Maybe Itachi's long-lost sister.

Yasha snorted. That would be a significant oversight on Zack's part. More to the point, her parents were not in the best of housing; so she may well be a illegit Nara child, but not Itachi's relative.

Yasha had seen both her parents, but… Nara and Uchiha looked alike: black hair, dark eyes. If he had been looking for Naraish air around Naoki's parents, maybe he'd have seen it, but he certainly didn't recall anything now. If one was noticeably lazy he probably would've.

Still, that didn't rule out grandparents.

Yasha kinda wanted to get a DNA test, but for a few things; firstly, Uchiha genes at the lab would cause all sorts of problems; secondly, he didn't even know where Konoha kept its lab.

Labs full of weird chemicals. Just like Orochimaru's lab.

Yasha snorted again, scratching his cheek, when a realisation hit him and he blinked in shock, smacking his legs. Of course. Such an obvious solution.

Weird chemicals… hair dye and contacts.

Yasha could take some of the kids out in public if he just applied some stuff to them that changed their looks. A lot of similar-looking kids would raise eyebrows. And in a pinch, if someone did stumble across kiddie base, they would see it as Yasha's impromptu orphanage made of street rats, rather than raising red flags about using the Uchiha massacre as a cover for kidnapping.

Technically, he did kidnap all of them, to be fair.

They couldn't exactly expect Yasha to trust orphanages what with knowing he saw Naruto getting abused at one of them – _and_ as far as they knew Yasha didn't even know Naruto was a Jinchūriki. Right now, his sponsor could have used Naruto as a 'child you can save from abuse', a way to manipulate Yasha into carrying out the mission.

The fact Yasha knew Naruto was a Jinchūriki from the start was something the Death Release user had kept secret, for good reason. If Yasha had snuck in and said he was aware of Naruto's latent power, it would be seen as a blatant attempt to seize control of Konoha's battle ability. He'd find himself exiled (or more likely in T&amp;I) for quite a spell, regardless of how much Naruto loved on him.

Yasha caring for kids wasn't suspicious from Konoha's point of view. They knew he hated child abuse, neglect included, and they also knew he didn't trust the orphanages and he had a soft spot for kids (constantly babysitting).

In reality, Yasha did like the fact kids were malleable and easy to intimidate, but kids in general… meh. Could go either way. Etsuko was adorable and noisy, Keito was weird, and Naoki freaked him out, so it really depended on the kid. Sometimes he wanted to strangle Etsuko, but having little sleep several nights running does that to you.

If it wasn't for the Uchiha massacre objective and his parallel plan to rescue the kids, he would never babysit at all, to be honest. It wasn't an interest of his.

However, if it was discovered they were Uchiha, the problem was flat fact: the Hokage knew Yasha knew of the massacre, and the Kage knew he wanted to save kids. The only thing was, the Kage assumed Yasha completely failed when he found him near-unconscious in the compound.

Gathering kids off the street is one thing. Being spared by Itachi and lying flat-out to the Hokage was quite another. Even Danzō had raised the accusation to Yasha: there was more than one reason to rescue an Uchiha.

If these kids were heard of publicly, e.g. Danzō, Orochimaru, or Akatsuki, then they were just a Sharingan farm waiting to happen. The Hokage Yasha might get away with telling without worrying about eye gorging; but the fact was, it had been a month since the massacre. If the Hokage didn't know about the kids being rescued, there was three problems.

Firstly, Yasha hiding it. Secondly, that Yūrei guy hiding it. Thirdly, _Itachi_ hiding it.

Itachi was working as a spy in Akatsuki. If this blighted his record, he might be viewed as a real… well… no. Yasha shook his head.

To be frank, distrusting someone who literally slaughtered his own clan for peace, just because he spared a few extra kids, would be ridiculous. The Hokage wouldn't think of Itachi that way with the extra knowledge.

Itachi would be fine.

But would the Hokage even be able to cover it up with Root intermingling in his forces? What would telling him change? If they were booted off to orphanages, fine, that was cool, Yasha planned that eventually anyway. If they were given ANBU watch, Root would find out, so no. If they were publicly announced, hell no. And of course, presenting them to Sasuke would overwhelm him and raise problematic questions about Itachi and Yasha both.

No. Yasha couldn't let this spread to anyone powerful. Back to cover-up measures…

Hair dye and contacts would take a load off Yasha's mind. But, they didn't last forever, and they cost money. Which he didn't have.

Naoki was a flight risk, from intelligence; and Michiko was a flight risk, from recklessness. He needed to make sure they stuck in the house when they should be.

_'How can I gain money?'_ Yasha considered. Firstly, he didn't want to reveal the kids to anyone in Team 7 or his Academy class.

Sasuke would be overjoyed to know there were real Uchiha – once he saw them, he wouldn't take Yasha's word for it – but then he would know something was off with Yasha and Itachi both. No one escapes two ANBU S-Ranks on a killing spree… especially while _carrying kids_.

And then manages to save _seven_ of them.

Sasuke would smell a rat, and there would be hell to pay, because Yasha couldn't tell him the full truth about Itachi, lest Sasuke turn on the village just like Itachi didn't want; and he couldn't tell him nothing, because Sasuke would literally kick his ass until he gave in. A half lie would just… well, Yasha didn't even know where to begin with half-truth, so that meant he didn't have anything convincing.

_'But…'_ Yasha felt a slow grin come across his face, _'I met Itachi, and Sasuke knows it. He knows my specialty is analysis, and he knows __**I survived**__. He knows I can gather information on people to manipulate them. Is it possible…'_ his grin widened, _'…to convince Sasuke I have an underground information network?'_

And then get Sasuke to pay for information on Itachi. Yasha did promise to support Sasuke in his revenge and all. To say he had informants and he needed money to pay them for info was not completely unlikely. After all, with Yasha's instruction scroll knowledge, he knew a lot of things a good information network could have found out.

However… Sasuke would be likely to become more suspicious of Yasha's capabilities. If he started tracking Yasha and Yasha went to the kiddie base, would that be a problem?

…No… not while Sasuke didn't know Yasha knew Kage Bunshin. He could track the original everywhere without problems, since the original Yasha would not visit the kiddie base. All Yasha had to do was his normal procedure: only access the kids through Kage Bunshin alone. The kids weren't rough enough to accidentally pop his clones, the clones lasted plenty of time thanks to their swarms enforcing the chakra network, and if the kiddie base was discovered by someone… he'd have time to run, and a spare 'life'.

Of course, if Sasuke knew he had an information network, then Kakashi may find out. The jounin wasn't above eavesdropping, that was for sure. Heck, if Yasha was a jounin, he'd spy on everyone he deemed important. The Hokage, the elder council, ANBU ops, the clan heads, his team members, … well, perhaps he was taking that too far, no way could he even get away with it, but Yasha just generally liked knowing what was happening.

Being in ANBU would probably make you worse with paranoia, and Kakashi had been an ANBU captain. Not only that, someone who specialised in assassination. Chidori everyone to the face without mercy and you gain a reputation, and you also realise just how mortal you are.

When you realise that, you realise just how many potential enemies there could be. Not to mention how many you've made Chidori'ng people's relatives in the face.

(Meanwhile Kakashi, kneeling on the branch, observing the boy whose face was frowning as he thought things through, was realising Yasha was quite the analyser. He made a note to consider him for team strategy.)

Using a spy network lie on Sasuke wasn't impossible. And in a pinch, even if Sasuke saw Yasha make clones each day, he wouldn't know which one to follow. Sasuke didn't know Kage Bunshin and chances are his ego wouldn't want him to use it once he discovered it. It'd smell too much like Naruto to him.

Would Sasuke shoving his D-Rank earnings at Yasha be enough to cover the costs?

Well… Yasha wanted some leeway on top of it. He didn't have much spare, which meant if he ever needed something expensive, forget it. He doubted Zack anticipated he would blast all of his cash on some onyx-haired brats, no wonder the savings were pretty much spent after two months.

With Sasuke inheriting the Uchiha fortunes… and given the fact the money would go to Uchiha kids… Yasha saw no reason to charge the clan heir little for his services. It was literally his right to claim it on behalf of them as the impromptu guardian.

So, Sasuke could be convinced. Was there any other sources of money, anything less dubious?

As a Kage Bunshin, he could find work in a shop… but that was unlikely. Dark chakra in a public place was not a brilliant idea. All it took was one Hyuuga and game over. Of course, the Hyuuga never went near the dodgy side of town that included the kiddie base, so that was that.

Henge made his KI increase from chakra use, so no one would want to hire him anyway. (Yasha made a note: Kakashi needed to teach him how to control KI. Seriously. Top priority.)

Yasha could also commit crimes as a Kage Bunshin, even with Henge, but again, it wouldn't take much tempting of probability before a Hyuuga was close enough to see dark chakra. Theft was no good, he wasn't doing drugs around Kakashi's nose, and he wasn't old enough to go near starting a more carnal job.

His skin crawled just imagining that last option. Screw that and screw his brain for even producing that option. Mentally, he stomped it into the ground.

Kakashi wouldn't give him any sort of cash. He didn't know Yasha well enough and he had been an independent prodigy since his preteens; as Yasha was pretty much in the same boat, he'd just tell Yasha to work it out himself.

Ino could possibly give him money, but it would kind of ruin the romance of whatever heavenly, masculine perfection thing she thought he was. If she questioned his money-providing, bring-home-the-bacon skills, she would start investigating the other aspects of him. Moreover, she was a social manipulator as well, and quite bossy; giving her ammo against him, even as her boyfriend, was a bad idea. And Yasha would absolutely hate a pitying look and treatment from her, when she was far weaker than him.

Even _if_ Ino gave him money, she had parents and presumably some sort of allowance. If she stopped buying her usual things it would raise questions. And Inoichi was overprotective. Bad news bears.

Naruto was socially ostracised, there was no way he could be used to gain money. Even if he _could_ be convinced into theft, his chakra presence had the same problem as Yasha's; it was so uncontrolled and huge it identified him instantly, while Yasha's was so dark it identified _him_ instantly.

The rest of his classmates weren't in his control enough to dish out money constantly to him. Most people wouldn't even do that to their best friend (Naruto was an exception of course).

Maybe he could bribe Hinata with Naruto's presence, dates with Naruto, etc. It'd be underhanded, but it would undoubtedly be effective.

If she could even access a lot of money. Could she? She was heiress of a clan, but come to think of it, she was so timid Yasha couldn't imagine her waving a wad of someone else's earnings around. She'd be morally obliged/brainwashed into not spending the clan money on non-clan matters anyway. Plus, she had a father too, one that inspected her every move, there was a good chance he'd find out.

Yasha could get probably most of her mission pay without raising her father's interest, but because it was based on Naruto and Yasha's availability to access her, the funding would be inconsistent. And of course it was still underhanded. It wasn't worth the effort, at least, not now.

So… he made the decision: Milk Sasuke for all he was worth. He had a clan's funds behind him and no parent watching how he spent the money. If the Hokage reared his head about it, Sasuke would defend out of ego that it was his business what he did with his money (quite rightly so, too).

Uchiha money for Uchiha kids. Yasha definitely had no moral problems there.

If he let Naoki and Michiko go outside more under his watch, it'd have one of two effects: make them stop wanting to escape so much, or make them want to escape more because outside was so shiny.

Maybe he could buy some sort of collar that stopped them leaving the house? Did that exist? It'd be cruel but honestly, he really, _really_ felt uneasy knowing those two were monitored solely by an eight-year-old who was also watching five other kids.

He'd rather feel safe and a bit cruel than unsafe and jittery. At this rate, he'd be so jittery he'd actually draw attention to himself more than any escaped kids would. He sighed defeatedly, considering. He shouldn't visit the kids at any point in his real form; a clone was better in all cases.

Especially now he graduated, and passed Kakashi's test. He'd gone from someone nameless to someone with incredible KI who graduated Academy after four months or so and impressed an elite jounin who normally failed all the genin teams.

That would raise eyebrows, with Danzō and Orochimaru, especially since Orochimaru was already paying attention to Sasuke's team so he could hickey him.

In short, ever since the Hokage dismissed his ANBU observers, Yasha was never more likely to be watched than right now. He had to go full paranoia; treat everything kid-related as clone duty only, and make sure he cloned in areas he could not be observed in.

The simplest solution was to stay cloned near-constantly; clone during the day to as many as he could (the chakra loss would cause a greater end capacity). Kakashi would assume Yasha expelled chakra as some sort of morning training. Yasha could use the clones as a method to test Death Release, assuming the clone left Konoha, tested something, and dispelled quickly afterwards… but, the radius of his KI release was pretty extreme.

Best to wait until he could control his KI; his KI release and dark chakra identified him too easily and he wouldn't be able to go too far or he'd be breaching the Konoha barrier, which would again identify something was off.

Okay, so get Kakashi to teach him KI control; milk Sasuke for money; and get a clone to buy dog collars, after going home and cloning. Unless he could find somewhere nearby to clone where he was unobserved. On the street was too obvious. Was there a public toilet nearby?

Ah yeah, there was one in the hot springs, that was closest. And he might as well relax now anyway. The genin test and Kakashi test and stealing the Forbidden Scroll were out the way. That was definitely an achievement and he deserved a break.

* * *

Kakashi rolled his eyes as Yasha went into the hot springs, booking an hour. Well, knowing Yasha and the fact he was concerned about money, the kid would stay there the full hour and get his money's worth.

The jounin wasn't interested in going in there under Henge and joining Yasha… he wasn't in the mood for a hot spring. Sticking around for an hour would get him noticed, these were the hot springs with male and female sides, and he'd have to focus on avoiding other jounins' attention. Any ninja under Henge in a hot spring was asking for a confrontation.

He sighed, hopping into a convenient tree down the street. He could see the hot spring's entrance, but not over the high fence from here. Absently, he made the cross seal and a clone appeared, soundlessly dropping off the branch and making its way to the Yamanaka shop.

The real him slumped on the branch, taking out his Icha Icha.

If today didn't reveal anything odd about Yasha, he might call it off. Right now nothing overly suspicious had happened; the toddler was an oddity, but Yasha was most likely a babysitter. If she had been running around on her own, no wonder he would go a bit berserk.

Without the Sharingan bared, he didn't notice when Yasha's chakra flickered and a few minutes later, a surprisingly light pebble was thrown across Konoha over the hot spring fence.

* * *

Yasha winced as he realised just how high he threw that. No biggie. If it killed the clone Yasha, he'd just re-clone.

The clone Yasha was mentally rolling its eyes, absently noting it was interesting going this high and fast. He couldn't actually see anything, since the Henge had no eyes, but he could feel the motion and wind going past.

As the arc of his Henge began to go downwards, he dispelled it, his sideways motion through the air halting in an instant as the increased air resistance and gravity took hold.

His heart jumped in shock as he suddenly realised he was about thirty metres above the ground at full weight.

Yasha re-applied the Henge, turning into a bird feather. He cringed as he felt his momentum slow down, drifting left, right… left… around… and oop, he just hit into something flat. The ground maybe.

Release.

He was on a flat roof. Not bad! The whole period he was visible in the air was less than a second. Of course, chakra presence and KI was still quite noticeable, condensed into a small object. Yasha idly wondered what happened to the swarms when he Henge'd, but if organs could seemingly vanish, so could his swarms.

The Death Release user hopped onto the ground, and walked off down the street, heading to the Inuzuka store.

* * *

"So, do you have anything to keep a pet in its kennel?"

"Normally we just use leashes, or if they're particularly big dogs, chains," the Inuzuka replied, frowning at him. "But I suppose you want something to keep them near the pack?"

"Basically, I was looking for something that would stop them from going too far from a certain point. Like the collars that stop them being noisy."

The Inuzuka nodded, chewing his lip in thought. "And leashes won't suit you?"

"Nope. Well, as a last resort, maybe. But I'd really prefer something that can be used on multiple dogs in the same area - something that won't tangle up or get in the way."

"You'll need a custom seal, then… I could ask around, the nearby seal stores may have something. Just buy a plain collar here and take it around to them."

"Alright, thanks for your help."

"Please come again!" The Inuzuka called, smiling, the smile vanishing the instant after Yasha left.

"I can always tell when you come, after all." He frowned at the muzzled dog beside him, who looked sheepish as his owner pulled off the muzzle.

"I don't like him," the dog said immediately.

"So you keep saying. And saying. And saying. But you can't tell customers they smell like death and that they're a predator, especially shinobi. You could bring up bad memories, or worse, imply something about their integrity."

"I know, it's just…" the dog shuddered. "Never mind."

The Inuzuka frowned down at him, then dismissed it, donning a smile as a new customer entered. "Welcome!"

* * *

"Seal stores are expensive, stupid, and dumb," clone-Yasha cursed. "None of them have anything. My best bet is getting a barrier seal, which will require a jounin level of chakra. No way can a clone activate it, and even if it did, the seal would be flooded with darkness too, making it a beacon."

He frowned in thought. "I don't know how the silencing skill doesn't broadcast KI, but I've never felt it do that. Must just be a different design, silence implies stealth, so maybe it hides the chakra somehow as well as smothers sound."

His frown degraded to a scowl. "I could use a leash, but a kid like Naoki would be able to get rid of it in a day, even if I hide every sharp thing in the house. Plus she'll get on my tits about it. The rest of the kids will find it really irritating, and that means annoyed crying and accidents as the leashes get tangled up. More crying equals more muffling seal, equals Keito drained of chakra, equals exhausted Keito, equals unreliable Keito."

The scowl stuck as he moved on to another store, deepening as they couldn't help. His chakra was always disturbed in those stores, like his chakra network was wobbling. Chances are there was some sort of anti-something seal used in there.

Come to think of it, the Tora cat could have this seal applied to her too. If it didn't exist, that explained why she could flee her owner so much. Although, it was perplexing why the mistress let it run around anyway… maybe the Diamyo's wife was just an idiot.

In the meantime, he might as well check on the brats.

* * *

Yūrei smiled pleasantly. "You want my money?"

"Yes, idiot!" the bandit barked at him, the gang waving their swords around.

"Fine, here you go." Yūrei tossed the rather fat wallet to them, much to their surprise. "What are you going to spend it on?"

"Huh?!"

Kisame scratched his cheek as he watched from the side. Bandits weren't smart enough to distinguish no chakra and civilian chakra, but even if they weren't on a mission, Leader had ordered him to keep an eye on Yūrei.

"None of your business!" The man snatched the wallet back up. "Now get lost!"

Yūrei held his hand up, a seal appearing on the palm, and the wallet pulled itself out of the man's hand and back into Yūrei's palm like a magnet.

"Sure it is. It's my money after all." Yūrei spun the wallet around idly and threw it back to them.

The leader didn't look like he was handling the turn of events very well. His expressions were flickering between shock, fear, anger, embarrassment…

"See, it's like a game." Yūrei pulled it back to his hand. "Catch!"

The leader tossed it on the ground, finally sick of it. "Stop screwing around with us!"

"Tell you what, we can play cards for it. It's less likely to end with someone dying."

The leader looked like he was going to run straight at Yūrei and put his sword to use, but the bandit next to him whispered something in his ear.

"Fine. We'll take you up."

Kisame's eyes widened as the bandit and his target sat down and started playing poker in the middle of the road. _'How the hell am I meant to explain this to Leader-sama? Should I just leave it out?'_

* * *

"So, you didn't see Naoki run off, but you aren't 100% sure of that, either," Yasha concluded.

"Hai… gomen, Yasha-sama." Keito looked remorseful.

Yasha scowled. "Fine. Naoki! Get your butt over here!"

Naoki flinched. _'He can't pin anything on me, right? I got home before he did…'_

Yasha watched her walk over. "Naoki, for someone so clever, you sure are a stupid idiot."

"Whaa?!" Naoki cried, outrage quickly colouring her face.

"Firstly, your walking pace over here wasn't at normal speed, it was hesitant, so you have something to hide. Secondly, your lower legs have dirt on them, which is impossible as this house is clean. Thirdly, you didn't ask what I wanted, so you knew anyway. Fourthly…"

Yasha hesitated, and stopped, his point was made and her shocked look was confirming every word. "You know what, forget it. There's something obviously wrong with you. Keito, scat."

Keito was observing from the side, eyes wide. "…Huh? Oh… right. Yes, Yasha-sama."

Naoki watched him scurry away with a sinking feeling. _'How the hell did Yasha notice all of that?!'_

"Naoki." Yasha's tone was dark, making the three-year-old flinch as she slowly turned back to face him. "What the _hell_ is wrong with you? It's obvious what's going on here, isn't it? You're endangering everyone! You know who Itachi is, you know what I did to save you, and you know I _absolutely cannot_ let you roam free. Why are you escaping and wandering around a village of observant shinobi anyway?"

So saying, he put both hands to his forehead, making the weak mental connection seal. He frowned as it connected. _'What is that? Is she encoding her thoughts? Is she even smart enough for that?! I can't make head or tails of what she's thinking. Kami damn it, did Keito spill the beans on my ability to read minds?!'_

"I wanted to go outside," Naoki said, her voice small.

"I _get_ that," Yasha told her plainly. "To be honest, in your scenario, I may well escape as well just for fresh air. But why did you have to leave the garden? Why were you wandering in markets? Even if you didn't get noticed by people who shouldn't notice you, there are…"

"I know Henge!" Naoki blurted. "I can Henge to an older age and no one will bother me!"

Yasha frowned. Her thoughts were still jumbled and a weird mess of syllables. Maybe she was too young or didn't have enough of the darkness for it? No… what was being sent was crystal clear, and he could use it on Shikaku after barely a day.

Encoding your thoughts would take years upon years of dedicated training, and she was three years old. Unless she was an ANBU regressed into a child… pfft, no. An ANBU would have better stealth.

Too young, then? Kami damn it. His trump card for truth was out the window, and it wasn't unlikely it was for all the kids here, bar Keito.

Whatever managed the communication or language part of her brain must not be developed enough for his older brain to connect to it properly. Well, the other resets wouldn't be around young enough kids to discover that fact. Fair enough.

Yasha disconnected, then he let himself process what she said. So, she knew Henge, huh? His subconscious had picked up on her identity, but he knew the subconscious was something incredibly powerful. "Wait, you're only _three_. That's impressive. Where did you learn it?"

She hesitated. "From my parents."

Big surprise. The overlooked genius of the Uchiha clan, huh? If fate had been different all along, she would be the prodigy to bypass Itachi. Instead she was killed before she was even noticed.

"Well, that's fine," Yasha acknowledged. "But do you really need to go outside that badly? If you want and you can use Henge, I will take you out, sure. But don't go on your own. Do you know why I can afford this place?"

The toddler frowned. "You're rich? You must own two places."

Yasha snorted. "As if. I rent two places, and this place is one of the cheapest places. It's because this is a bad area, high crime. I _personally_ saw someone getting mugged and nearly raped."

Naoki's face drained of colour. "Are you serious?!"

Yasha nodded, eyes afar. "Don't worry, I dealt with _that_ problem… but unless I plan to do an Itachi and kill everyone around here, it's not safe." He fixed her with a hard gaze. "Especially for three-year-olds, and especially for three-year-old _girls_."

"Right…" Naoki analysed his face and realised he had murdered that person. Her world rapidly tilted and she swallowed roughly. "Wait, isn't there police?"

Yasha grinned sadistically. "You mean like the Uchiha Police Force?"

"…Oh." Naoki blinked in realisation. "Oh. Right."

"Yeahhh… There won't be a solid police force for quite a while. Chances are the shinobi force was just told to watch for crimes, and the patrol routes were reshuffled to cover a bit more areas. It won't be anything like it was, and even when the Uchiha were around this was a high-crime area."

Naoki nodded, her gaze drifting into thought.

There was a few seconds of silence, then Yasha scowled. "You're smarter than this. You could've asked me to go out."

"You would've said no anyway."

"Can you guess why?"

"…" The toddler glanced down, frowning. She looked up at him, read his expression, and looked back down.

"I'm sorry," she murmured.

"If I had been noticed chasing you, give it two months and Danzō will have your head."

"Danzō huh…" she muttered.

"Itachi as well," Yasha corrected. She wouldn't recognise that enemy. Then he hesitated; she had. "You recognise the name?"

"My parents weren't very fond of him. I heard them mention him a couple of times," Naoki explained.

"Ah." Yasha flopped down beside her, suddenly tired from the suspicions.

"Why do you do this, Yasha… sama?" she asked, tactfully adding the honorific. "Why did you save all of us kids? You're not an Uchiha, at least not one I've heard of."

"Why?" Yasha rolled his eyes in thought, clasping his hands. "I like giving people a chance. I like being in control, too. This is an easy way to do both."

"You want to control us? That's evil," Naoki rebuked, her tone without much conviction.

"Would you prefer I had left you to Itachi?" Yasha smirked. "My control's first action was to save your life. And if the original circumstances cost you your life, don't you owe your life to me?"

The toddler scowled. "That doesn't mean you can control every action I do. That's the same as slavery."

She made a good point. It was interesting having someone he could trade philosophy with, even if it was a ridiculously smart three-year-old. Shikamaru didn't seem interested in going into the finer levels of morality – probably because murder was inherently wrong and part of his job. And forget about it with Naruto.

"What's wrong with slavery? You could just say we're a slave to other things, eating and sleeping. We can't escape those."

"They don't have a consciousness, and they don't really change their demands anyway," Naoki pointed out. "Even if you don't like being a slave to your own biology, you can't really change it."

Yasha hummed. "Then what part of slavery don't you like?"

"Lack of freedom," Naoki instantly replied.

Yasha blinked at her quick response. "You mean freedom as in travelling? Or being the top man?"

"Where you do what you want."

The Death Release carrier rolled his eyes. "Top man then. In this world, you can't do what you want unless you have a ridiculous amount of power."

"Now you sound like the Uchiha," Naoki said with a sigh.

Yasha smirked. "Heh, I don't have a superiority complex like you do, Naoki-chan."

"I do _not_ have a superiority complex," Naoki said flatly.

"Ah," Yasha dragged out the syllable knowingly, "so you believe that your ability to psychoanalyse is better than mine. In other words, you're superior."

"Wha?!" Naoki jumped to her feet, finger pointing at him. "Stop that!"

"Ah, you're ordering me around. Just like a superior."

She jumped him.

* * *

"YES!" The bandit scooped up several thousand ryou, the gang murmuring in approval at his hand.

"Nice!" Yūrei remarked with an easy smile.

"He's alwah's bin good at'th pokah," one of his gang muttered behind him.

_'This is freakin' ridiculous. I've been here for an hour now.'_ Kisame groaned inwardly. _'I can't believe Yūrei just challenges people to poker when they're trying to rob him.'_

"Damn! You're pretty good, ossan!"

"Oi, oi, I'm not _that_ old," Yūrei deflected with a grin. "The hard part is just playing with my eyes closed."

"You seem to know which cards you have without looking, though," the leader commented.

"Naturally. I'm a shinobi, you know."

His opponent gasped. "No way! Have you been cheating on us?!"

"You misunderstand." The Black Mask smiled, eyes still shut. "My eyes are a special kind that can record anything they see. If I play with my eyes open, I will be cheating without even trying. So instead, I just marked the cards with little holes in the corner, and when I deal I make sure I'm not touching the holes."

Kisame blinked. _'Eh? He's not even using his Sharingan? Well, he could've just knocked them out if he wanted to rob them. Still, he must be using some sort of seal or a sensor if he can feel comfortable without Sharingan.'_

"You're a shinobi, huh? Missing-nin?"

"How'd you guess?" Yūrei flipped another card down.

The bandit's second shrugged. "No normal ninja just play bandits. They'll take them out or skip past just to save time."

"True enough. Here."

"What's that?"

"A Bingo Book from where I came from."

"Showing off, are we?" He took the book anyway and started flipping through it.

Yūrei shrugged. "If you've earned a rep, wave it around. You guys could make easy money off me if you handed me in."

"Mess with a missing-nin? Yeah right," the bandit scoffed. "If they ain't caught by their village after they left, they're pretty serious problems."

He found the page with Yūrei on.

* * *

Name: Uchiha Yūrei (Konoha)

**Flee On Sight**

Bounty:** 200,000,000 ryou**

Rank: S-Rank

Skills: Assassination, Infiltration, Kenjutsu, Fuuinjutsu, Genjutsu

Chakra affinity: suspected Fire/Lightning

Chakra elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Lightning, Yin

Bloodline: Uchiha, Sharingan

Details: ANBU captain, hides presence using fuuinjutsu. 192cm tall, full appearance unknown.

* * *

"Two hundred million ryou?! The fuck!?"

"What? You're shitting me." The bandits almost piled him looking at the amount.

"Oi." The bandit leader started sweating heavily. "That's… not even close to anyone else."

"Why are you scared now? I haven't changed. That person in the book was me since you first saw me." The Black Mask calmly started gathering up the cards.

"I um…" The bandit's eyes trailed over the page.

"Well, look happy. You met me and lived."

The bandit leader blinked. "Wait… You're going to let us live?"

"And keep the money?" another bandit said in disbelief.

Yūrei shrugged. "Sure. Just because I'm a criminal doesn't mean I don't have morals. Although, you guys need to work on that part."

The leader scratched his head, but his second-in-command spoke up. "Hey, sir – how did you get a bounty like that? Why did you betray Konoha?"

Yūrei nodded approvingly. "Good question. Basically, I placed a genjutsu that forced people to tell me the truth. I did it over all the rulers of Konoha. Needless to say, they don't like that, but I didn't want to be backstabbed."

"But now you're out on the street. They backstabbed you."

"No, it's fine. I went there for training, and they trained me. I always planned for this. I'm more concerned about you guys."

"What about us?"

"You're all banding together. There's twelve of you. Are all of you satisfied that, if you survive to be an old man, you'll look back and say, 'Yep. That was worth it. I made good use of my life.'? Because to me, it seems like you're wasting it. You might not be the luckiest or most talented out there, but you just need to put in the effort."

_'Now he's giving a motivational speech to highway robbers.'_ Kisame groaned.

"Oh, and they lowered my bounty to a hundred fifty million ryou a while back. I broke the genjutsu over the leaders, so they lowered it." Yūrei stood up unhurriedly, brushing off his legs. "Anyway, I'm going to be giving you guys a parting gift."

The bandits started. Kisame's eyes narrowed and he focused. Yūrei was one of the fastest people he'd ever come across. As expected from an assassin. He tracked the motions as Yūrei sped between each bandit, tapping all of them on their left temple, the tiniest of chakra flares appearing.

Yūrei wouldn't be able to outrun 'the Tail-less Bijū', but with fuuinjutsu, altering the environment to slow Kisame would be very doable.

The bandits just saw him vanish from in front of them for a second then reappear, the wind from the momentum blowing around them wildly.

"Put simply, I can now talk to you. If your temple starts getting hot, here," Yūrei gestured, "Just hold your finger to it. If you don't want to listen, just tap it."

"Why would you need to talk to us?"

Yūrei turned, his back to Kisame, and made some hand seals. Pressing his hand to his temple, the bandits all jolted, then put their fingers to their temples.

"Your voice is in my head!" one of them blurted.

Kisame cursed silently. There was no way to work out what Yūrei was saying to them now; even if Kisame visited the bandits later, the seal may well self-destruct.

"Yep. And here's why I'll need to contact you."

The bandits closed their eyes, frowning as his voice echoed in their heads, then nodded with smirks. "Got it."

Yūrei smiled. "I'm not going to force any of you to do it, but you will be handsomely rewarded… regardless of the task."

"Who's the Shinigami?" another asked.

Kisame frowned. _'Isn't that a legend from years back?'_

Yūrei blinked, his tone becoming a bit sharp. "Someone I'd rather not discuss now. It goes without saying you don't discuss what I say privately to you, to other people. If you're overheard, there could be a problem for you."

"Got it." The bandit leader nodded, the bandits one by one dropping their hands from their heads. "Thanks for your business," he grinned.

Yūrei chuckled, and turned to go. "No problem. You guys better go home, I'd say you earned enough money today."

Kisame rolled his eyes. This exchange was almost childish.

Yūrei appeared to be building an underground network to find the Shinigami.

* * *

"Before my eyes, any jutsu you want to use are nothing." Itachi smirked.

Orochimaru's eyes flared as he clutched his stump of a left arm. _'That's incredible. He's only at ANBU captain rank, I should be far above him. I tried to get the Rinnegan and I knew that was too high… but Sharingan too?'_

_'Well, since I'd had you placed under a time-delaying genjutsu ever since we first made eye contact…'_ Itachi rolled his eyes inwardly as he tossed Orochimaru's arm to the side carelessly. _'And then switched to Paralysis once your chakra changed.'_

"Those eyes, huh…" Orochimaru muttered, glee filling him. "They're even more powerful than I thought."

Itachi had every fibre of concentration focused on Orochimaru, his chakra twitching between Summoning, Crow Clones, Replacement… Even with Mangekyō, this was a problem. Orochimaru was someone who happily used people for experiments, passing moral boundaries without hesitation; who knew how far his demented experiments had taken him?

Itachi frowned, his eyes throwing yet another genjutsu onto Orochimaru, every negative emotion he could think of pummelling the Sannin's mind. _'If only I had Kotoamatsukami, I could get rid of him quietly…'_

He made a hasty retreat while his clone mocked Orochimaru behind him. "Get lost, _Sannin_. If I see you again I won't just let you go."

"Don't worry. We'll meet again." Orochimaru scowled, performing Kai with the hand he had left. He made his own retreat, preparing his regeneration technique. By the time he had finished, Itachi had gone.

"Shit," the real Itachi cursed at a safe distance. "He must be after the Sharingan. That just gives him two targets, and Yūrei's even more of a risk."

_'Or maybe more targets, if Yasha did save some kids like he said,'_ his brain reminded him helpfully.

He paused for thought, rescanning the environment. No sign of Orochimaru.

_'No, the odds of them awakening Sharingan that young is miniscule. Even I was far older when I awakened them.'_

The only target Orochimaru could reasonably attack was… Sasuke.

Itachi winced. If Orochimaru killed Sasuke… no, he wouldn't. He knew very well a non-Uchiha body didn't cope well with the strain of the Sharingan. He'll figure out some way to take over Sasuke's body, at which point the Totsuka Sword could get rid of him.

Plus, Orochimaru wouldn't forget his defeat here. He'll be cautious.

In fact, it wasn't unlikely Orochimaru would take Sasuke under his wing for training. Snake movements and body contortions required a lot of training in advance, and Orochimaru wouldn't give up half of his moves.

Itachi scowled. No, he still didn't feel right about this. Orochimaru couldn't get close to Konoha, though, not since the barrier seal's password was updated some time after the Sannin left. Itachi could waltz in but the Sannin couldn't.

And barrier or not, there was still a Kage there, a Jinchūriki, all the ANBU corps and jounin, and even that cursed man Danzō with his tricks. Sannin or not, Orochimaru's arm would have grown long indeed if he thought he could reach Sasuke in Konoha.

And it wasn't public knowledge Sasuke had awakened Sharingan during the night of the massacre either. Orochimaru couldn't do anything until it was, and even once Sasuke did 'awaken' it, he'd have to fight his way through everything Konoha had to offer. Even if he went after Sasuke's team while they were on a mission… it'd be a Jinchūriki, a Death Release user, and Hatake Kakashi around him. All of whom were no pushovers.

Itachi had only used a shadow clone on the Death Release carrier, but he didn't even have enough time to hit Yasha three times before the clone was swarmed onto like a wave of acid. And that was three hits at top speed. (Although he only hit him once back then.)

Although, that team formation was just a guess, but the Hokage probably wouldn't have assigned anyone else to the team.

And not to mention the Snake Sannin needing to dodge the spy networks Konoha had to offer via Jiraiya and Danzō. Scumbag as he might be, Danzō wouldn't let someone dangerous steal extra power or destroy his village. If nothing else that man wanted the village to prosper under his leadership; he couldn't well do that if there was no longer a village. And cutting into Konoha's forces while upping Orochimaru's power was definitely not something Danzō would stand for.

Itachi shook off his thoughts and made a hand seal, channelling chakra into the ring on his finger and shutting his eyes. "Leader-sama."

"Itachi. What's your report?"

Itachi's tone was coldly professional. "Orochimaru has betrayed the Akatsuki and tried to attack me."

_'I suspected so. So it is the Sharingan he wanted.'_ Pein scowled. '_He's as Sasori suspected.'_

He cleared his throat. "I will dispatch the nearest team to your location. See if you can track him. They will be with you in five minutes."

* * *

Yūrei was heading back into town when both his and Kisame's ring vibrated with a familiar chakra, making Samehada stir on his back. Both he and Kisame made hand seals, shutting their eyes.

Pein's voice rang through their heads. "Kisame, Yūrei. Orochimaru has turned on Akatsuki. Go to Itachi, he's waiting to the west of the village of Grass. Find the Sannin and retrieve the ring on his finger."

"Wait, we were that close to him and you didn't tell us?" Yūrei realised. "We're to the south of Grass."

"I expected something like this. No one can deceive Kami's eyes."

"Roger that. I have business to settle with Orochimaru." Yūrei grinned sadistically, cancelling the communication technique and speeding off.

Kisame stepped out of the trees, watching as the figure retreated into the distance. "Interesting… I didn't really expect Orochimaru to be a placid member of any group, but attacking the new guy?"

With a powerful burst of chakra he blurred off into the distance, hot on Yūrei's heels.

The leader of Akatsuki activated another link. "Konan."

"Hai."

"Yūrei should be approaching. I think we'll see a bit more of his potential if he meets the Sannin."

"Hai," she replied smoothly.

"Has he done anything suspicious?"

Konan blinked, her paper wings flapping. At this altitude, it was difficult to see much, but she didn't want to have either of the two below notice her. Sharingan had quite a range.

"Itachi? Not that I could see. He got the first mission done fine, Orochimaru attacked him after."

"Try not to intervene. If he can overpower Itachi, Yūrei and Kisame together, you won't be safe even with the element of surprise."

"Hai," she agreed, Although, now that the two had broken apart in different directions, it was becoming difficult to track both. "Should I track Orochimaru?"

"If you can."

She squinted at the figure she could barely make out. He was approaching trees. She'd have to get closer.

* * *

Kakashi scratched his cheek, deep in thought. For a first day, Yasha had performed his tasks exceptionally, but had a suspicious nausea, and overreacted to a girl apparently being unobserved on the streets. Given Yasha's child abuse history, the latter wasn't remarkable.

Yasha just had an uncanny ability to raise suspicion while being perfectly normal in all other aspects.

If Naruto or Sasuke had been sick, Kakashi wouldn't have thought twice about it. But Yasha was an unknown person with an unknown bloodline from an unknown family and unknown country, with an unknown sponsor and unknown motives.

Of course, they could just let the boy play out whatever schemes he had, but instead of veering on the side of trust (deserved, really, Yasha had done nothing but help Konoha since arriving), Kakashi veered to distrust instead.

It was a problem. A significant problem. Not because Yasha was dangerous, but because Kakashi couldn't think in an unbiased way about him. If he defaulted to distrust it could ruin teamwork, if he let Yasha run wild it could do far worse.

Although, looking at it realistically, Yasha couldn't sneak around because his bloodline made his chakra very obvious. While he could manipulate people, all of those in the upper echelons of Konoha had his number on that, clan heads included. After the mess with Yūrei the command chain was undergoing review too. Even if he got the kids under him the parents would still have control over them.

If Yasha was trying something, it would have to be right in Team 7, where the only two kids who didn't have parents and had significant political power were.

And his first move was appearing weak. Why?

Kakashi scowled, shaking his head furiously. This was annoying. Whenever he thought about Yasha his thoughts naturally drifted to distrust and apprehension. He couldn't be sure if Yasha was suspicious – or if he was normal and his bloodline was mentally morphing something completely normal into suspicious in Kakashi's head.

It was irritating to all hell to be biased. What would be a fix for this?

Well, according to the ANBU reports, Yasha's insects stuck around inside brains, and he could recall them back to him by moulding more chakra. If distrust was a thing the brain-swarms caused, all Kakashi had to do was get Yasha to mould more chakra near him at the end of each day.

Frankly, the idea of something manipulating his thought patterns in his own head made Kakashi feel squeamish. He didn't even like Yamanaka, trained professionals, poking around in there, and to know there was several feral carnivorous insects in there, which may well be chewing away at his brain cells?

It was unnerving and made him rather nauseous, to say the least.

Thankfully, a certain young ditzy girl was just stepping out a shower and poor Raiko-san had no idea she was in the bathroom as he approached clad only in a towel. At least porn was distracting. If only Kakashi had Icha Icha when he confronted Orochimaru, he could have totally overridden the KI sent at him. Lust always beats fear.

(Just try it; if you're scared of the dark, walk out there and start thinking of kinky things. The fear just vanishes.)

Ah, speaking of which, Yasha was leaving the hot springs. He'd spent 48 minutes or so in there. Interesting, so he hadn't scraped every penny's worth out of it. Kakashi mentally noted it as he casually got back into a kneeling position.

Yasha did a cursory glance up and down the street, eyes running over Kakashi's tree, but too quickly to have seen anything – and he moved on, the ex-ANBU trailing behind him.

* * *

Naoki had agreed with clone-Yasha not to go out without him, even with a Henge on, even if there was a dire emergency.

Instead, Keito would be sent out, and Naoki would watch the younger kids. To be frank, both seemed too young to go out anywhere, but there you go. Naoki's Henge to a larger size was dangerous as it required a lot of chakra, which reduced the time it lasted, and if she stayed the same size some good-meaning citizen might notice a kid without a guardian; either way she would be noticed.

It might be an idea to see if there was some sort of communication seal that Yasha could install, in case they needed to contact him, but after his disappointing trip around the seal stores, Yasha was not that hopeful. Chances are its range would be so limited he'd need to buy some big expensive version to be contacted anywhere in Konoha by kiddie base, and D-Ranks would drag him all over.

Plus, there was a good possibility the seal could be tapped into, or even had a backdoor directly wired into it. The Hokage probably wouldn't pass up the opportunity for extra internal security and it wasn't like Yasha would be able to tell the difference.

Paranoia was actually a very good security mechanism. It made you avoid even the most unlikely problems.

What would happen if Yasha was found out by the Hokage? Well, with his info on Danzō, he could convince the Kage he only had good interests for the kids, and there wasn't anything to indicate otherwise if a Yamanaka _could_ hop into the toddlers' heads.

Of course, suspicion or simply not believing Yasha was capable of full care would turn the Kage into taking over, or at the least making regular inspections. Ultimately Yasha would get off scot-free, possibly even compensated for his efforts.

However, the Kage was due an invasion in six months, one he would not suspect at all. Danzō had an underground army right under his nose, and Akatsuki were soon to be a problem – Yasha didn't know if the Kage was investigating them, but he definitely wasn't investigating Danzō. Frankly, information handling didn't seem to be his strong point, particularly with internal matters.

So, no. No Kage help.

Today's job… hmm, well, he had to get another clone going to visit the kids; the last one had popped to let him know of the development with Naoki. He could reconsider what Naoki's new-found ability meant for him.

Or his clone could. Nah, his clone would be busy with the kids.

But now _that_ was an intriguing notion; now he could ponder two completely separate topics using a clone's brainpower. How interesting.

He carried on striding home, mind abuzz with schemes and theories.

* * *

**AN:** Who's looking forward to Konan, Kisame, Yurei, and Itachi vs Orochimaru? Or do you think the Snake will just vanish?

By the way guys, my meticulous fiddling with MRET Dimension Machine has borne fruit, and I've finally got a new story out! Technically it's late, but if you enjoy this story, you should check it out too. It'll have more modern humour, but the narrator is a bit maladjusted to the madness of fiction.

It's called **Disillusioned**. Just go on my profile, won't be hard to find ^.^


	36. Distortion of truth

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 36: Distortion of truth_**

* * *

**AN:** Welcome back to the story guys/gurls. It's been a while. Months and months actually.  
Last chapter post was 29th of March. It's exactly 6 months later, 29th of October.  
…I'm not sure how my subconscious did that.  
Enjoy the chapter. It's 17k words, which is pretty big!

* * *

Inoichi was rinsing the fertilising powder off his hands and suppressed a flinch as someone entered his shop. Still a bit jumpy. Yūrei's surprise Summon had spooked him majorly, and now every person that he sensed set him off.

Ironically, Yūrei traditionally had no chakra presence at all, so he normally couldn't be sensed, that just meant if he took the seals and masks off, Inoichi wouldn't recognise his chakra at all. But Yūrei had long gone.

But the logic didn't sink into the emotional centre of his brain… because logic and emotion couldn't work like that. The only solution was to continuously reject the idea he wasn't safe and mentally decide he was, until his subconscious finally engrained that habit by itself.

The Yamanaka head flicked the water off his hands and headed to the counter, perturbed when he saw the visitor waiting for him. Hatake Kakashi, infamous novel in hand, and his bored look firmly locking away his distraught past and over-alert senses.

"Well, I can guess you don't want plants or psychology, so how can I help you?" Inoichi smiled. If it were plants Kakashi would have brought them to the counter, if psychology he wouldn't have fixed his expression so carefully. Kakashi didn't like psychologists, but then any ANBU walked on eggshells around Yamanaka. After all, one bribed mind-reader and an ANBU's head would spill with all sorts of S-Rank secrets and personal matters alike. To say nothing of the trauma they could unlock.

Kakashi's tone was as carefully expressionless as his voice, and as expected he cut straight to the point. "I read you had to interrogate Yasha. Can I talk with you about him?"

Inoichi's greeting smile slipped and he nodded. "Come to the back."

The two jounin moved to the back at a calm pace. Kakashi blinked and glanced around the garden. "Oh? You've redecorated."

"Yep," Inoichi agreed simply. The clan gardens, ironically enough, was where Inoichi was meant to feel safest. After the Summon, he no longer could, so he had rearranged a lot of the garden so the memory's visual trigger of one of the most terrifying moments of his life was less prominent. He was also very certain there was no Summon seal anywhere on his clothes, skin, or the ground nearby; he'd been very thorough with his checks. He even hired a Hyuuga.

The two sat on garden chairs by a table, the large open garden fulfilling Kakashi's subconscious desire to have an easy escape route and clear line of sight. Kakashi did appear relaxed, though.

"So, Yasha, where do I begin?" Inoichi drummed his fingers on the table in thought.

"I know about his ANBU reports and what's made of his psychology. I understand his mindset," Kakashi sliced away most of the topic. "What's your personal opinion on him?"

Inoichi frowned. "He's a very dangerous kid. His bloodline and mindset turn him into someone who can be violent without a shred of remorse, and kill people quickly – probably a whole group in one shot.

"Of course, with dental records and the like, we can still identify the skeleton left behind, but he can disintegrate the bones as well, just with more time. _Psychologically_…" Inoichi sighed, summing it up, "He's someone with social anxiety, toggled sociopathy, extreme manipulative tendencies, a rare and deadly bloodline, trauma, and control issues. He is triggered by child abuse, hates child neglect, he's already killed three or more people, and his mind is all but inaccessible to any method of interrogation."

"Triggered by child abuse and neglect, huh…" Kakashi mused, "So he doesn't like Konoha for the shunning that's been happening to Naruto?"

Inoichi nodded shortly. "Got it in one. But he's smart enough not to generalise, he knows even a majority opinion isn't every person. So if, for example, he dislikes jounin in general, he'll give each one he meets a chance."

The Hatake nodded. "And his detachment complex, what does that mean for his relationship to Team 7?"

"You mean…?" Inoichi realised, eyes widening.

Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Yep, I'm saddled with him, along with a certain blond and an Uchiha emo."

"Please, don't call Sasuke an emo. It's crude. He's traumatised by what happened," Inoichi rebuked automatically, mulling that new team arrangement over. Trauma wasn't something to make light of; it made going for help that much more embarrassing. "I don't see what the Hokage was thinking, breaking tradition, but okay."

He leant forward, but the silver-haired jounin had already tucked the book away at some point and his attention was fully on the Yamanaka head. The Yamanaka spoke calmly. "Naruto isn't a problem. Yasha to some degree seems himself as someone playing a game, in which the entire world is the board.

"As such, Naruto, being a piece he can easily manipulate, is akin to having the queen on a chess board, or a gold general in shōgi. It's easy to send Naruto anywhere and get him to do anything because he trusts Yasha so much.

"As a result, Yasha will treat Naruto properly, because child abuse will set him off and because he's so easily manipulated. However, due to his history and nature, he'll punish disobedience severely and trim Naruto into size with a mixture of emotional manipulation and physical violence. From his childhood, when he witnessed abuse, he saw a child getting overpowered physically to gain control over them… so likewise, if his control is tested, he'll default to physical violence to respond. He won't like that he did it, and while this is a form of abuse, his underlying intention is for Naruto's benefit."

Kakashi held up his hand, a hard look in his eye. "Wait, so his benefit is to be Yasha's dog?"

Inoichi winced. "I wouldn't quite put it that way. From Yasha's perspective, while the chess queen is a powerful piece, it's very vulnerable, and ultimately useless without the player. So he will protect it by making sure it will follow his orders exactly and that Yasha knows where Naruto is at all times, and what he's thinking of. He won't want harm on Naruto; he'll actively prevent it in fact."

Kakashi nodded curtly. "No point having a broken puppet," he summed a bit more harshly. His eyes trailed to the side in thought, before he brought himself back and gave Inoichi a piercing look. "And what about Sasuke?"

Inoichi sighed. Kakashi had a very low view of Yasha at this point – maybe it was right to have it, but as Yasha's sensei, it wasn't a good idea. Maybe Kakashi could hide it, but Yasha was very good at reading people. "Well, Sasuke was assisted by Yasha after Itachi left, so he owes him a…"

"Oh?" The silver-haired jounin flipped his hand up and cut Inoichi off again, leaning forward. "I hadn't heard that detail."

"Oh." Inoichi blinked. He didn't know? "I shouldn't really tell you then, but I think for the sake of the village you're better off knowing."

"Yeah, yeah, get on with it." Kakashi was about as likely to betray Konoha as Tsunade was to give up on gambling and they both knew it.

The Yamanaka head continued. "Basically, a powerful genjutsu was placed on Sasuke, one that altered time by compacting three days' worth of experiences into a few seconds. While the exact physical change is unknown, Sasuke was given a loop of seeing all his relatives die, repeatedly. While this wasn't a problem the Yamanaka could deal with, since the experience on his end was over in seconds, it was the aftermath that was the problem."

"The aftermath?" Kakashi repeated slowly.

Inoichi spread his hands. "The brain isn't capable of handling three days' worth of emotional trauma without rest. Even three _regular_ days without rest would be pushing it. The stronger the emotions you feel, the stronger the memory you create; so trauma for that length results in a record of nearly all of it. So with three days of that, after the genjutsu ended Sasuke lapsed into a comatose state where his body attempted to recover, but mentally, his subconscious was processing and recording all the experience.

"If a Yamanaka had jumped into his head at that point, they would be in a dream world, at the mercy of whatever Itachi would have him experience. They wouldn't be able to do much other than be added to his recorded memories as his brain kept processing them. He'd still be in a coma. If we had forced him to wake up early, the memories would be getting processed while he was awake, meaning he'd be seeing flashbacks in every direction. It was beyond our abilities."

Kakashi nodded slowly. "So Yasha's mind abilities and natural genjutsu breaking…"

"Yes, the combination did the trick. Yasha was capable of breaking him out. It wasn't instant, though. My theory is he has a mental technique that forces a state of normalcy, a state of wakefulness in order to read thoughts. The swarms force Yasha out of abnormal thought patterns naturally as a self-defence mechanism; by going into the recording of a genjutsu, the swarms activated by 'dispelling' it, cancelling the processing and recording process."

Kakashi scratched his head, trying to grasp it. "So he basically cancelled the genjutsu-flow memory by forcing the brain to resume normal chakra flow?"

Inoichi nodded. "Something along those lines, yes. Yasha's swarms automatically cancel out genjutsu, and since he was inside a genjutsu experience, they tried to cancel him out of that as well. Sasuke still had to respond to him, but since he did, their consciousness joined briefly and the influence of Yasha's chakra flow broke him out of the genjutsu as well, just like when you inject chakra into a teammate to break them out of a genjutsu.

"By merging with Sasuke's mental environment, his swarms took control of the conscious state there, and whenever the genjutsu loop attempted to reoccur, the swarms forced it to normalise, dispelling each new iteration, and all the iterations remaining were dispelled in seconds."

"That's pretty impressive," the other jounin mused.

Inoichi hummed. "It would be if a person had done it, but Yasha didn't really do anything. His swarms did it all for him, on automatic. Yasha himself probably never saw anything of the genjutsu Sasuke was seeing, since the swarms would have protected him from its effects."

"Still…" Kakashi sighed, and then realisation hit him. "So Sasuke is indebted to him now…"

"Yep. Besides that incident, Sasuke has been put on a path to gain power by Itachi, and since Yasha has an intimidating bloodline, Sasuke will naturally assume Yasha's stronger than him." Inoichi waved his hand airily. "Of course, that's not the case; bloodlines aside Sasuke is far stronger, in taijutsu, techniques, pretty much all the methods. However, with the bloodline, Yasha has an instant-kill method, high intimidation, regenerative ability, he's genjutsu-proof, has a telepathic technique, and of course there's his experience in manipulation."

Kakashi dismissed the overpowered status breezily. "In battle he can't use regeneration, it takes too long; and his intimidation and use of bloodline draws attention. If he goes against someone with a Katon technique and his insects burn up, a Suiton and they're washed away. He has difficulty hiding himself and he's not ninjutsu-proof."

Inoichi nodded agreement. "Definitely not, and Sasuke is an Uchiha, so he most likely has Katon affinity. Unless Yasha wants to kill him he'll lose against Sasuke in a fight; he's not fast enough to keep up in taijutsu or dodge larger ninjutsu, and he doesn't have a particularly strong body."

Kakashi leant back with a sigh. "Well, that's reassuring. He's easily overwhelmed despite his bloodline."

A few seconds passed and Inoichi let the prodigy process the information, before prodding him. "Okay, is there anything else?"

"So Sasuke owes him a big favour and Naruto's his bitch," Kakashi summed up airily, making the psychologist frown at the crude wording. "And, Ino's his girlfriend."

"What?" Inoichi recoiled, then groaned. He spun, gazing back out over the garden and freshly-planted flowers. "Yep, I know that much. I've tried to talk her out of it, but ever since Yasha saved her life, twice, I can't exactly get rid of her perspective of him."

He sounded resigned. Kakashi considered asking Inoichi about what he was doing about it, but it wasn't really his concern. If Inoichi was aware of the problem with Ino, and aware of Yasha's iffyness, then it was fine.

"But now you're Yasha's jounin-sensei, maybe you could influence him…" Inoichi turned around and blinked at the empty seat opposite. Kakashi was such an asshole sometimes.

"Dad!" Ino called from the hallway, stepping through into the gardens. Recently, Inoichi had been in the gardens more often than not. She could guess why.

"Hey sweetheart." Inoichi smiled at her, then took in her serious expression. "…What's on your mind?"

Ino flopped down in the seat opposite him, her whole body language screaming agitation. "It's about Yasha, dad."

"Right." Inoichi nodded, inwardly relieved she was addressing it.

Ino counted off each statement, whacking a finger onto her palm with each. "Asuma-sensei doesn't trust him. Shikamaru says his dad is scared of him. And _you_ keep telling me he's bad news. What's wrong with him then?"

Inoichi sighed. She was asking him the same thing Kakashi had, and judging from her look, she was finally ready to hear it. "You know about psychology. And obviously, I received this in confidence, so you should keep this private; _strictly_ between us two." He analysed her expression and came out with it. "He has a detachment complex, and a control complex."

She was shocked. "What?"

"He has a constant desire to be in control, and he does not feel attached to reality enough for things that happen in reality to matter to him."

"I know what it means!" Ino snapped, outraged, puzzled and upset. Actually, she didn't really know what she felt. "Why? What happened?"

"He was involved in child abuse when he was younger and he ended up killing the abusers."

"Oh." Ino's gaze dropped to the floor and suddenly Yasha's berserk state made complete sense. A control complex was common if a traumatic experience occurs outside of your ability to control it. It was a defence mechanism – if you're in control you're safe.

"He's not safe to be around, Ino. His bloodline is so dangerous he calls it Death Release. You saw what happened that night someone… tried something on you."

That was, to put it mildly, scary. But the implication was… Ino recoiled. "You think he's just playing with my emotions rather than actually wanting to be my boyfriend."

"It's very likely," Inoichi said gently, but bluntly. "He has a control complex, if for some reason he wants to control you, he would use any method possible to do so."

"Um…" Ino didn't know what to think. Yasha had protected her… but he had covered his own tracks the first time. He was strong and confident, and she still couldn't think about that kiss in the Academy without blushing. He was hot too, and yes, a bit dangerous, like all shinobi, but maybe that bit was something bigger than she thought.

Maybe her dad was right. He might have saved her just because it had triggered him. Maybe he would have killed her. An icy feeling crept up her spine. Why wouldn't he? Her father, mind-reading clan head, couldn't get into Yasha's mind. He was one of the few people that could actually get away with killing her.

Yasha had called her out on blackmail, and then distracted her from questioning what the blackmail material actually was by kissing her. If that was why he did it, it was devious.

Yasha had said he could love any girl.

He didn't say he loved her. He said he _could_. And he said _anyone_.

Like all of them were equally possible. Like she wasn't special to him.

Stunned, she sat with her mind reeling, not noticing when her father quietly stood and walked back into the store to give her room to think. Yasha hadn't even said he loved her, and right then, in that moment, he had the courage and romance enough to kiss her – but not to say those words?

Were those kids really _that_ important to him that he'd play with a girl's feelings? Was he that sort of person? Even with a past like that, it wasn't something Ino could forgive. She stood up abruptly, deciding on the spot she was going to confront him.

As she was about to stalk out the front door, Inoichi's call stopped her dead. "Ino." Inoichi's tone was flat. He emerged from the side room, fixing her with a stern look. "I hope you're not about to go and test the control of someone with a control complex."

"Yes, I'm going to tell…" Ino's angry retort trailed off as she re-evaluated. That was stupid, now she actually thought about it. It'd be as clever as telling a pyromaniac your house feels chilly. It'd trigger Yasha in the worst way possible. Well, second worst way, after child abuse.

She needed an adult, a jounin who could take her away if he freaked out again. After the demon experience she knew if he was triggered she'd be overwhelmed in an instant.

But if Yasha's secrets were significant – and they would have to be for him to go to this extent to hide them, he was no idiot – then Ino didn't want anyone else hearing about the secrets, any jounin included. Yasha wasn't dumb, and he did have quite a lazy streak; the fact he was doing this childcare all by himself, refusing help and covering things up, that was significant. Ino had seen him quit taijutsu match with 'sudden stomach pains' and so she knew he didn't put in effort if he could get away without it.

Even though quitting taijutsu could get him mocked by the other boys, just like babysitting, he did it anyway.

The best idea was to just figure out what he was doing with those kids, without him knowing. Then she'd know what to do; to confront him or leave it with him. Without knowing the reason behind the kids being secret, or Yasha going to such measures, it'd be stupid to go through with confronting him.

She nodded at her father, resolved and calmer now. "Right, Dad. Don't worry, I won't do that."

"You better stay safe, Ino," Inoichi ordered her sternly, a ghost of a smile flickering as he relaxed. "Last thing I want is to ground you again."

"When I'm on a team?! Daaaaaad."

* * *

"So, you want battle plans, then," Shikaku hummed, moving a piece forward idly.

The Hokage nodded, brows set. "He's not someone we can take lightly."

"No, he sounds like he's well fleshed out." Which was high praise coming from Shikaku. "Infiltration, assassination, kenjutsu, fuuinjutsu, genjutsu, Sharingan, Mangekyō, five elements…"

Worse than fighting Itachi?

Ten minutes passed until Shikaku spoke. "The things that we need to be concerned about: Firstly, his lack of presence. We won't be able to find him. When we're engaged in battle, he will need to be tracked expertly, which requires Hyuuga or Inuzuka, and of course radio communication.

"His weak point is his chakra level and his affinity. Regardless of his capacity, if he goes all out to take down an attacking force, he will run out of chakra quickly. The Sharingan lets you force your body's chakra into duplicating a recording of someone else's, but it doesn't remove the strain of using an affinity you're not used to. If we attack him with his natural affinity, with combo attacks, he'll be unable to overcome with the same chakra, and be forced to use a draining affinity, which will exhaust him."

Hiruzen nodded. "So, using a single Katon [Fire] would mean he could probably override with his own Katon. So we need multiple Katon users with an attack he can't overwhelm, and force him to use Suiton [Water] against it to cancel it out."

"Ah." Shikaku held up a finger to interject. "Not quite. It's not guaranteed he's a Katon affinity. He _may_ be Uchiha, but his exact lineage is uncertain. The trust thing means no one ever tested his DNA; they took his word for it. Besides, while the majority of Uchiha have fire affinity, it isn't all of them."

The Third Kage nodded again, acknowledging. That was quite the oversight. "At any rate I'll be sending Jiraiya in to tackle him. He'll be able to use Sage Mode to track him, and he can easily outlast him, even if Yūrei has equivalent reserves, since Sage Mode adds a lot onto it."

Shikaku moved a piece again. "Actually, I'd keep Jiraiya back until he's weakened, or maybe not use him at all except for tracking Yūrei. After all, Yūrei has that trust genjutsu, and it's nearly instant in casting onto someone. Whether it drains Yūrei or not, you don't want Jiraiya having it; him suddenly dismissing Yūrei or worse, turning on the rest of the team. Unless you can disable any possibility of a genjutsu with seals or Sage Mode naturally prevents it, up until the last second you risk someone, or potentially multiple people, turning on you with newly-installed trust genjutsu activating."

Hiruzen nodded a third time, agreeing with the master tactician. "We'll need some considerably powerful shinobi there; ones capable of doing damage or dragging out a fight against Yūrei, and ones capable of taking down _those_ shinobi."

Shikaku frowned. "Or, you could just give the kill order. Genjutsu naturally cancels if the caster dies. As soon as someone's turned on you, authorise Yūrei's death."

Hiruzen tapped his chin again, looking reluctant. "I'm hesitant to do that. We won't know his motives."

Shikaku sighed. Hiruzen's passivity was, for once, misplaced. "Hiruzen-san, you just _can't_ afford to keep him alive. Give him any chance to explain and he could genjutsu you. Capture him and jump into his mind and you risk whatever fuuinjutsu and self-applied genjutsu he's set up." Shikaku waved his hand tiredly. "You _cannot_ trust this man to explain himself."

Hiruzen shook his head. "I can't even trap him. If he sends a Kage Bunshin, it'd be impossible to distinguish from the real deal, since chakra amount won't be visible. If he has a Summon trick set up, it's even harder."

"You'll need four, up to six ANBU squads," the Nara suggested. Konoha only had eight squads total, so Hiruzen looked a bit perturbed. Shikaku clarified quickly. "It's a lot, and if he couldn't turn people on each other just Jiraiya could take him on, but that's how it is."

The master strategist chopped the table with each statement. "Hit him hard and fast so he can't plant trap seals, drain his chakra levels protecting himself with non-affinity chakra, and keep him down." He fixed the Hokage with a focused look. "Every second someone is near him, you risk that genjutsu. He must be kept too busy to concentrate or gather the chakra, and ideally, you need to cycle the attacking teams so that he can't work out whether to cast a genjutsu on a particular person or not. If they pull back immediately the trust may be planted and made useless immediately." Then he sighed, leaning back. "Of course, this problem is eliminated if we have a counter to his genjutsu."

"Hmm…" the Hokage mused, as his mind caught onto something Shikaku wasn't privy to. _'Itachi is still loyal, and he has a significant Mangekyō genjutsu ability as well. He used it on Sasuke, and caused him to experience three days' worth of trauma in seconds. If he uses that on Yūrei… assuming he can under whatever seals Ghost has on himself… then Itachi has three days' worth that he can use torture or whatever methods to wring information out of him._

_'And because it lasted only seconds in the real world, there's a good chance if Yūrei has anti-genjutsu seals, they won't activate in time to save him. A seal that takes half a second to notice a genjutsu and kick in to release it will still leave Itachi with several hours of interrogation._

_'At the very least, it will weaken Yūrei, but I'd have to smuggle Itachi into the attacking force… unless I get Jiraiya and Itachi alone to attack. Itachi communicates with Jiraiya already. At least, let Itachi make his mark, then have Jiraiya attack the weakened Yūrei while Itachi retreats, then send the ANBU in and swap them with Jiraiya, hiding him to the background so he cannot be genjutsu'd. And the ANBU stay far back enough to not know of Itachi's presence. It's not a bad idea.'_

Of course, he shouldn't tell Shikaku the details behind Itachi. Even if he did, there weren't any more players who knew Itachi; the Nara head wouldn't be able to add much to the strategy knowing Itachi was on board.

"The strategy is relatively simple," Shikaku said calmly. "Send in a strong team then replace them with another strong team, and repetitively doing that, will stop Yūrei from using his Mangekyō genjutsu. He won't know who to place it on – even if he manages to put down one team, there's still another team incoming.

"Hyuuga ranged attacks would be instrumental, too, and of course there's the various clone techniques. However, with someone good at assassination, even to the point of using needles, the clones won't last long. Anything bar Shadow Clone will be see-through as well."

Hiruzen moved a piece. "Nara would work too, to hold him down."

Shikaku shook his head slowly, scratching his head with a finger. "I'll be unsure about that. If we're attacking, the Nara will take the impact momentums. And I can't tell what his seals do for his shadow; while it's very unlikely they're affected, connecting it with someone else's may be dangerous. He's had ample opportunity to test seals on Nara and use implanted trust genjutsu to get them to forget it ever happened.

"And more than one Nara on the same shadow, even with radio, will still be interfering with each other's control. They'd be tying each other down as well as him. Plus, there's the same problem as with Yamanaka: his no-presence seals make targeting harder. The Nara will have to see him and have a few seconds to connect their shadows – without _him_ seeing _them_. For Sharingan users, a chakra attack will be visible from the start – particularly in his case, as he keeps it activated constantly."

"What if I have a strong taijutsu user attack him first?"

Maito Gai, while wearing the guise of a simpleton, wasn't stupid. However, he would allow Itachi's presence if the Hokage talked it over with him privately and convinced him that Itachi and Hiruzen formed a truce over a mutual enemy – that way Hiruzen could hide that Itachi was doing it out of loyalty.

Gai would rant about youthfulness of working together to defeat evil while internally musing about how unusual it was a missing-nin worked with his home village. But Gai was as loyal as they come and enemies wouldn't expect S-Ranks from someone who'd never been in ANBU, so the secret about working with Itachi against Yūrei would never be forced out of him.

Plus, while using the Gates, the body's mental state was so out of sync, high on adrenaline and running excessively fast, it actually formed a protection against incoming genjutsu. You'd have to be a user of the Gates to cast a genjutsu on another user; it's too difficult to understand the abnormal brain process.

Of course, a powerful genjutsu could get past that, but you'd still have to be exact in your aim of the genjutsu so it hit them… and exact aim on someone who was ridiculously fast was a pretty unlikely thing to begin with. Sharingan or not, you couldn't overcome that much speed.

Chalk another up to be in the initial attack.

Actually, the same principle would apply to the cloak around a Sage user. Hiruzen made a note to talk it over with Jiraiya. If the Sage chakra could provide genjutsu protection, the Sannin might be enough to take on Yūrei alone… with some ANBU teams on standby just in case.

Trust genjutsu was the main issue; Jiraiya could handle an ANBU captain alone otherwise.

* * *

"He's not here," Itachi said flatly, unsure whether to curse or be happy Orochimaru had vanished.

"No shit," Kisame grunted. "Never liked that creepy bastard."

Yūrei frowned, reaching into his coat. He pulled out a scroll, and threw it on the ground, activating it.

Itachi raised an eyebrow as he mentally corrected himself. _'No… just "activating it" isn't right. He didn't just shove chakra in… he put it in in a certain pattern, like a password. So, he prevents people from stealing his scrolls. The caution Yūrei has extends to all his weapons. As expected of someone who's betrayed every commander he's ever worked with.'_

The scroll began to unfurl, words forming on it, what looked like a list. Yūrei's eyes swept over it.

"He's further than ten miles from here already," Yūrei sighed, incinerating the scroll with a small blast of Katon chakra. "At this point tracking him is impossible for me. Do you guys have any tricks?"

_'I specialise in taijutsu and ninjutsu, large area attacks, not tracking,' _Kisame thought, rolling his eyes – rolling internally, there were S-Rank Konoha-nin in front of him after all. Relaxing on a potential battlefield even for half a second was a good way to die quickly. "Samehada can't detect him, and there's no trail, so I'm out."

Itachi had swept his eyes over the scroll and froze when he saw the contents. It was a list of names, a big list. At the top were Yūrei, then Itachi Uchiha, White Zetsu, Kisame Hoshigaki, Konan, White Zetsu, then a few others.

Numbly, he replied to Yūrei, only his ANBU training ensuring his demeanour remained unchanged by his internal shock. "I'm sure he's covered the conventional ways. I don't sense him, either. Unless his ring has a locating seal on it…"

"I wouldn't think it does," Yūrei sighed. "And if it did, he'd disable it. He's a fuuinjutsu user as well."

Itachi recalled the list. It looked like it worked by order of proximity to the seal; whoever was closest was at the top. Naturally, Yūrei was first, the act of activating the seal requiring him to lose his invisibility to the seal itself – or maybe the scroll detected the chakra within itself.

Zetsu was right after his name, which meant somehow Zetsu was between Itachi and Kisame… underground? No, there was there two White Zetsu… which meant… there was a long-term clone?

A White Zetsu clone was either following or attached to Kisame or Itachi. _'Is that how I'm being watched? I thought it was just Kisame… but apparently Zetsu is invisibly following me too. Either underground or tiny. He's a plant, so it'll be difficult to pick him up by scent… maybe he has seedlings or spores form…'_ Itachi mentally cursed as his chakra senses and Sharingan gave him nothing. _'Damn it, I can't detect him. Kisame seems trusted by Akatsuki already, more than me anyway. The only person who can detect him is… Shisui's murderer.'_

"You two want to grab a bite?" Yūrei asked, standing up and dusting his coat off. "Since we're all together for once."

Kisame looked on in disbelief. Yūrei was the most unorthodox shinobi he'd met. First the impromptu game of poker with bandits, now he dismisses an opponent like Orochimaru and wants to go eat with some S-Rank missing-nin from random countries.

Yūrei strode past, clapping his hand lightly onto Itachi's tense shoulder, whose eyes had evolved into Mangekyō pre-emptively. Then Itachi paused as a thought hit him. Yūrei had activated the scroll, and then turned slightly to the side, putting the list of names clearly within a readable angle.

He never actually expected to find Orochimaru with that scroll. He _wanted_ Itachi to see the contents.

He was warning Itachi about the trackers.

This invitation to have a meal was actually an invite to share something else. A scroll, some hidden ANBU signals; possibly even throw him into a genjutsu to tell him something… maybe he'd remove Zetsu himself.

Unlikely, though… if Zetsu had some sort of seal on him, that'd tell Akatsuki exactly when he was removed/killed, and then the meeting with Yūrei would be right about that time.

No, a paranoid person like Yūrei would make sure telling Itachi about the Zetsus happened by apparent chance – so he'd tell Itachi exactly where Zetsu was planted and let him remove it in his own timing. If Zetsu was tiny, he could presumably stay that way indefinitely, perhaps due to his half-plant nature, not needing to eat. It wasn't certain if he could communicate with the main Zetsu without activating a technique, and it wasn't certain if his status was monitored.

There wasn't really a need to remove it immediately, since it took a lot for Itachi to not detect an assassin, and Zetsu wasn't exactly strong. Even if Zetsu was just holding a really long type of Henge and could reappear in full size in an _instant_, _and_ Itachi was asleep, the Uchiha was still confident his Sharingan and reflexes would give him plenty of time to deflect it. There was a lot of ANBU training for that, to be a light sleeper.

Depending on the location, Itachi could get an enemy to destroy Zetsu during a fight; a small sliver of skin loss or burn was worth being clean of spies. Though, it'd be difficult finding someone strong enough for an S-Rank like Itachi to falter; mistakes from an experienced S-Rank during battle were _extremely_ rare. Bandits were so low-level a single handful of shuriken from Itachi would take care of a group; if one of those cut Zetsu off him that'd raise instant suspicion.

On the other hand, most S-Rank attackers would be capable of killing him with one strike; if Itachi kept looking for ways to make himself vulnerable, chances are, that vulnerability of a-few-millimetres-deep cut in the hands of an S-Rank enemy will become a wrist flick or some way to extend the strike into a few _inches_ deep. An S-Rank would know how to handle the Sharingan's prediction – simply suppress all muscle twitches before you flick – and Itachi wouldn't see it coming.

Free of spies, but free of life too.

Oh, but that would be bliss…

Itachi mentally slapped himself and brought himself back to the present.

He was confused as to what to feel about Yūrei. On one hand, he knew that Yūrei killed Shisui – yes, on Danzō's order, but Yūrei had full capacity to ignore that order and even make Danzō forget he ever gave it, since the genjutsu he had on Danzō was more than capable of that – and Danzō wasn't even _allowed_ to order the death of a loyal Konoha member. But Yūrei had done it anyway.

Yūrei was also one of those who slaughtered the Uchiha. He did so remorselessly, not caring that they were Konoha members, that they were of his clan, or all the ways they were similar to him or why he should keep them alive. He killed them as easy as cattle, and he offered to become a missing-nin without any sort of fear.

Arrogance? Self-confidence? Or just a general apathy to the concept of death, even his own?

Itachi found it hard to shut down his response to killing someone, as a pacifist; but when he was in ANBU, he had always wanted that part of Yūrei, the ability to switch off emotions.

But as an enemy and a betrayer, it was one of the most horrific things to know about your enemy.

Guilt, remorse, concern, all alien concepts to Yūrei. He won't even think about the worth of the potential life he was cutting short. A mother and small child were as easily killed by him as an old man who already had a fulfilled life.

It didn't seem human.

This was a truly wretched world, that in it the strongest humans were the least humane.

He considered. '_Yūrei has information he wants to tell me, let's put aside emotions and loyalty for now and hear him out. With Kisame and apparently Konan around, he's not going to attack. Akatsuki have no reason to attack me either.'_

In the time it took Yūrei to step past, Itachi had thought all of that. Itachi gave a small sigh for effect and spoke neutrally, without any sort of inflection, just going along with it. "Alright."

Kisame was slowly hardening to the bull that Yūrei just kept coming out with. "Fine," he agreed as well.

Several hundred metres above them, Konan scratched her head (quietly). Yūrei… a textbook unknown, un-malleable character. Of course, S-Ranks weren't very malleable typically. If they were, it'd be easy to capture or beat them; just push their buttons and while they're seeing red they'd make mistakes.

Normally, there would be some weaknesses, but a S-Rank would already know better than to fall for them. Everyone had their buttons, but the S-Ranks just had sufficient self-control for their buttons to not be a weak point.

Whereas Yūrei had no buttons at all. There was just no information and no attribute of his that could be exploited. There was simply no inclination in any direction; no sob story, nothing forsaken, since there was no real history. There was no importance placed on anything in his past. He even slaughtered his entire clan and didn't even care about it. No motives, no history, nothing to work with or have as ammo against him.

He was as blank as Sasori's puppets.

Frankly, she wasn't sure if Madara had let him in because Madara saw through the ruse, or just because he was too strong to leave loose, like Orochimaru. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, was the saying. Enemies are easy to observe if they're right next to you.

Orochimaru had finally shown his true colours: his desire to learn all techniques would leave him turning on Akatsuki at the drop of a hat. Not at all surprising, but it was still something that had needed testing. If he _had_ managed to take down Itachi, there was little doubt Nagato would be next on his list, for the Rinnegan, then the Sannin would systematically destroy what was left of Akatsuki, simply because they were too strong to enslave as his underlings, or too hostile to be left to roam free.

Madara saw it all coming, of course. He was no fool; he had seen wars and betrayals almost since the beginning of shinobi.

Konan reported in to Pein, speaking calmly. "He's gone. None of the three or me can track him."

Pein frowned. He'd hoped the four combined would catch him, but then again, of all the Sannin, Orochimaru the Snake was the most slippery. "Hmm. Did you see his method of escape?"

"No. It may be a Reverse Summon, invisibility, or an underground technique."

"Okay, how are the three working together?"

"They mostly dismissed it. None of them are trackers, and Orochimaru wouldn't be amateur enough to leave anything just anyone can follow anyway, unless it was a trap. However…" she squinted, "it looks like they're heading into Grass. From the sound of things, they're going for a meal together at Yūrei's request."

"Interesting. Kisame is loyal, and the other two betrayed Konoha. Follow if you wish… which knowing your distrust of Yūrei, you do." She could _hear_ the grin tugging at his face.

"You bet I will," she replied flatly.

"Well, contact me if you find anything, but don't stick around too long. On the off chance they noticed you, sticking around too long will tell them you're not there just as a response to Orochimaru's attack."

Konan rolled her eyes. She wasn't an idiot. "Hai."

* * *

Ino neared the place she saw the kids in, and analysed it. Still a rundown building – not so damaged it wasn't structurally safe, but it looked like it had a fair share of leaks. She looked through the grimy window and hummed thoughtfully.

The kids were in there, all playing about, some reading, others just playing with toys and games with each other. Max age nine at a guess, and at least one too young to even crawl who was lying on a baby mat on the side, a female toddler bending over her.

Yasha, a kid who had suffered child abuse, given free rein over some younger children. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.

In that sort of opportunity, you could repeat the abuse to lessen the blow of the memories of it happening to you. Projecting, that was the term. It was a coping mechanism of sorts – if someone did it to you, and you do it as well, it becomes normal, so you feel normal – or at the very least it becomes the next kid's problem, the last link in the chain.

Or alternatively you could ignore the opportunity, and do the right thing; but then the fact it could so _easily_ have not happened to you as a kid would frustrate you. There was the chance of letting yourself grow bitter that it ever happened – curse gods, the memories, the person who did it, the world itself…

Obviously Yasha had a detachment complex, which meant he just didn't care that it happened at all, consciously anyway, and he _did_ kill the abusers, which meant revenge had happened already. But he wasn't exactly stable and abuse was a very hard thing to remove from your system.

It was entirely possible he was abusing these kids. Perhaps not as a regular thing, but during fits of rage…

Yasha wasn't in the building, which made her frown. So they were unmonitored for a good part of the day. Judging from the eight-year-old's looking around and keeping tabs on everyone, he was in charge.

Seriously, an _eight-year-old in charge_. No, some sort of intervention needed to happen here.

Ino left the side of the building, looking around carefully, but no sign of anyone in the streets. Looked like Yasha wasn't about. She didn't want to confront him alone, not even in front of the kids. He'd already demonstrated a knockout technique and some sort of demonising power-up. The kids could easily be convinced she was some sort of spy or attacker using Henge after he killed her.

Although, her Dad would know exactly who hurt her if she vanished after that conversation, but _Yasha_ wouldn't know that her Dad would know, so he'd attack anyway.

Who could she get to tag along with her, someone she could trust to watch her back, overwhelm Yasha if it came to a fight, and keep quiet about the whole thing? There was her new sensei Asuma, Iruka-sensei…

Shikamaru and Chouji weren't going to be able to overwhelm Yasha, but they could stall until real help arrived. Yasha was a stone-cold genius, much like Shikamaru; anyone who could enter the Academy with just a few months to go, yet gain a high pass for that short period, and you're meant to spend _four years_ there… they would have to be a genius.

Asuma seemed to know Yasha already, as did Iruka. Asuma was wary of Yasha, so he wouldn't be taken off guard, but he seemed to get along with Yasha anyway… so Yasha would be intimidated but Asuma would be familiar enough to Yasha for him to be comfortable.

The next thing was to work out a way to communicate with Yasha without Asuma overhearing, yet having Asuma close enough to jump in. Yasha deemed keeping those kids secret serious enough to knock her out… and perhaps emotionally manipulate her, she still wasn't _sure_ on that… she had to respect his privacy on the matter.

If it was just Yasha being over-cautious and over-controlling, then she'd have no qualms spilling the beans on the children and relieving him of his unnecessary and frankly suspicious babysitting duty, but on the off chance it wasn't…

Asuma would do. Although she still wasn't _completely_ comfortable around him – that night had made Ino more wary of people she thought she knew – after a while she'd get him to keep an eye on her, and she'd confront Yasha.

Of course, there was her dad, but he wouldn't let her go near Yasha, and if he did he would definitely be looming over them, so for privacy that option was out the window.

Give it a week or two, and then confront Yasha with Asuma watching on. Sounded good.

* * *

"Hi, can I have milk tea and some biscuits?"

"Hai," the waitress stammered at the black-masked ninja.

"You guys?"

"Regular tea for me," Itachi said calmly, giving the faintest smile to reassure her.

"Same," Kisame grunted disinterestedly.

"Yes, sirs." The waitress scurried away.

"Oi." Yūrei called after her, making her jolt. "Relax, we're not here for anyone. We're not starting anything."

Itachi nodded slightly in agreement and Kisame just glared stonily at the wall opposite.

"Yes, sir," she sounded slightly reassured, and carried on to the kitchen area.

"Heh." Yūrei turned back, smirking under his mask. "Right-o, guys. Kisame, never really introduced you two. Itachi, Kisame, and vice versa." He gestured vaguely.

"Pleasure," Itachi said dryly. He knew Kisame from the ANBU black book anyway.

"Likewise." Kisame seemed to have gone into a stupor from Yūrei's weirdness.

"Itachi, I have an update on Sasuke again."

Itachi stiffened, forcing himself to relax as Yūrei passed a small scroll over, roughly the size of a finger. He took it and opened, feeling it suck a small part of chakra out. The arrays activated in a sparkle of chakra circuits, and the paper… did not catch on fire as it could have.

Written to the side was "Team 7, under Kakashi Hatake. Sasuke Uchiha, Uzumaki Naruto, Yasha".

"As I expected, but this is still unusual," Itachi replied nonchalantly, jamming chakra into just the right part to short-circuit it and activate the fire chakra. He was deliberately vague so Kisame wouldn't get anything valuable. _'That level of information isn't too hard to gather. Any desk chuunin would need to know it.'_

"Yep. A bit untraditional." Yūrei nodded, eyes trailing the scrolls as it self-incinerated.

"Who's this Sasuke?" Kisame asked out of the blue.

Itachi suppressed a frown at the S-Rank's interest. "My younger brother."

Kisame nodded shortly, digesting it. "You get on well with your brother?"

Itachi lied as he had to. "Not really. He wants to kill me, and I want a challenge."

Yūrei rolled his eyes. "Not many Uchiha with Sharingan left, after a few people kinda wiped out the whole clan."

**_Blade in the heart crying heart is aching_**

Itachi scowled. "Not a good day for me."

"They deserved it."

"That's enough, Yūrei." That was about as civil as Itachi could reply, as flashbacks of killing the children went through his head.

"Sore spot." Yūrei smirked. Itachi glared at him, then realised his mistake when Yūrei's Sharingan spun.

The world paused around them.

"Okay, Itachi." Yūrei stood up from the table. Itachi stood too, his eyes morphing to Mangekyō in preparation. "Relax, it's a low-level genjutsu, you can break it easily. I have additional information that's easier to communicate in imagery."

Itachi paused. "Go on."

The environment morphed around them. Itachi found himself outside a rundown house in a street.

"In here." Yūrei peered through the window, and Itachi followed, his Sharingan thankfully recording every second as he saw seven Uchiha playing together, a couple reading books. The illusion was complete with Sharingan recording – definitely genuine.

Yūrei smiled slightly as he observed as well. "I'm sure it's obvious to you – actually I think we discussed it – but these seven are doing fine. Yasha is taking care of them and his nature is making him very protective too."

"His nature?" Itachi said, straightening.

Yūrei shrugged. "Well, he suffered child abuse while in an orphanage when he was younger." Itachi winced. "He won't let the authorities know they exist if he can possibly help it. And trust me, he's _very_ good at finding ways out of things."

Itachi frowned, accepting it. "And you know there was a Zetsu on me?"

Yūrei nodded. "Standard policy for newcomers, I expect. You are a little hard to figure out… me too. But in my case, I'm a seals master; a seal to clean my clothes burning off a few Zetsu is a good enough excuse. Every time I get them I burn them off, they just have to deal with it. They would send one to follow me, but their underground movement isn't faster than me sprinting, so overall, no observers for me. Bar other Akatsuki members, of course."

Itachi nodded. Made sense. "Right. Any idea of Zetsu's techniques?"

"The seed is roughly this size." The space morphed in-between Yūrei's finger and thumb, and a tiny white cell appeared. A sphere as wide as the white part of a fingernail, a few millimetres at a guess. "Don't ask me how all that genetic data and intelligence lives in that, I have no idea."

Itachi shrugged. "Well, it's not necessary to know. Where are mine?"

"Don't know exactly, but there's probably on your shoes, and on the back of your knee or near your shoulder-blade, where they're hard to see and remove. They're resistant but not proof to elemental ninjutsu, and incredibly difficult to hit with taijutsu. Environment genjutsu does work, but trying to hit them is nearly impossible because they don't have a real brain to pattern off. Sharingan genjutsu may work, but that'd require them to look at you," Yūrei reeled off. "I know they record the environment somehow, but I'm not sure what senses. They don't drain chakra and the chakra they do have is heavily compressed. When they eventually grow to full size, they're extremely weak, about high genin at best."

"Alright, thanks," Itachi said begrudgingly. He still couldn't read Yūrei, and it wasn't just the presence-hiding skills. His manner of general disinterest persisted regardless of the scenario. "Do you have any extra information on Konoha," Itachi blinked and added, "…or the kids, or Sasuke?"

Yūrei hummed, nodding slowly. "Sasuke's doing well. Like I said, Yasha broke him out of the after-effects of Tsukuyomi. So it's not as bad as it could have been. He hates your guts like you wanted…" Itachi suppressed a flinch, "…but because Yasha's in his team and promised to help him with killing you, he's working with him – integrating into Team 7 properly and starting to build relationships there. They passed the bell exam, so they'll be starting missions in the next few days."

"Anything else?" Itachi pressed, at this point more concerned with finding out the limits of Yūrei's information sources.

"The kids have toys, food, drink; they're healthy, bouts of cabin fever but Yasha plans on moving them to orphanages once the hubbub over the Uchiha incident dies down. Hopefully, a few months. Yasha was running low on cash, but I sorted that out."

Yūrei was offering a lot of information freely – information not hard to grasp if they had an informant in Konoha, chuunin level or lower possibly. Itachi moved on quickly. "And Akatsuki, tell me their goal."

The Black Mask shrugged. "Not much to tell you. Pein wants to rule the world.

"His plan is to gather money so the land of Rain prospers and can build defences, trade and the like, collect all the Bijū for a weapon of sorts – possibly something that combines all their power somehow. He plans on using that weapon at a given country's call; say Fire hates Kumo, then goodbye Kumo. Then the people who knew people in Kumo are all weepy, and sob stories go around about war, and once people have finished blasting their countries to pieces there's peace.

"Until they go to war, and blast each other again. Eventually people will have a more permanent peace brought about by mutually assured destruction."

Itachi scratched his head, mulling it over. "But… wouldn't people just be reduced to smaller wars? Agree not to use the weapon?"

Yūrei shrugged. "Assuming a limited war worked – after all deception is one of the best strategies – maybe Pein will fire it at both countries as soon as they take up arms."

Itachi nodded slowly. "But then if a tyrant takes over Rain, it's not peace, it won't be used to keep war away, just to ensure lordship. Pein has to die sometime."

"Well, it is still peace," Yūrei pointed out, "It's just not very _comfortable_ peace. Instead of fear of the weapon, it's fear of the wielder, which isn't that dissimilar. Probably a lot of innocent deaths. But if you kill everyone who's innocent, you have no one to rule. But yes, to be honest, I'm not sure Pein thought this through."

Itachi's shoulders dropped. "You're kidding me."

"He has a god complex. Probably thinks he's immortal or something. Basically, the bearer of Rinnegan is an idiot."

Itachi blinked. The Rinnegan was a legend of legends, and Yūrei dismissed it like it was a crown worn by a spoilt brat. _'So, Yasha is moving the surviving Uchiha to orphanages…'_ Itachi started as he realised something he should have noticed earlier. "If they're in orphanages, Danzō…!"

"Ah!" Yūrei waved it off briskly. "Don't worry. He knows about Danzō and Root."

Itachi recoiled. Very few outside of Root knew of it. "How?!"

Yūrei smirked. "We have mutual friend who has a _very_ good information network. He told Yasha about Root before he sent him to Konoha, so Yasha wouldn't get caught up in it. In fact, he told him about what the Uchiha was leading up to. Yasha predicted Danzō's actions and there you have it, his managing to save seven kids and go completely unsuspected by everyone."

He was _definitely_ a prodigy to predict an emotion-suppressed man like Danzō. Itachi probed for more information. "The same man who is giving you information on Konoha?"

"Not exactly a man, but yes." Yūrei nodded. Itachi's subtle change from 'friend' to gender-specific was not lost on him. "I recorded that scene with the kids way back, so there needs to be another form of staying up to date. At any rate, he is the reason us two know what we do – our respective missions are to the same goals, but we didn't really know of each other. I put two and two together once Yasha turned up out of the blue, and my suspicious were confirmed when he was sent to T&amp;I and the name Zack was chucked around. We didn't have to interact, otherwise he would have come to me, so we didn't."

Itachi nodded, things slotting into place. That's why Yūrei helped Yasha save the kids, yet didn't bother saving the Uchiha. He was acting his part, and Zack hadn't bothered telling him to stop the massacre in some way. "Ah, so the same person sent you both, but separately? Does he not trust you two?"

Yūrei smirked knowingly. "On the contrary, he trusts us both perfectly. His information-gathering technique is undetectable, and can see into areas you wouldn't expect. He doesn't even have to be near. So he knew both of us extremely well."

Interesting – he was not considered a man, but Yūrei referred to him in masculine. It was either a boy, or some half-plant thing like Zetsu. But Zetsu was pretty much unprecedented in nature, and there was no chance he was working against himself. Yūrei must have met Zack to determine the oddity, and an ANBU captain following a boy seemed very unlikely.

Unless Yūrei just disliked being predictable. Made sense. If he liked being unpredictable, he wouldn't like being watched. Yūrei would be the type who would do something that seemed against an objective, but actually be working for it, just so what his real plan was remained unpredictable. He wouldn't compromise a mission (100% success rate spoke for that after all) but he'd be happy to toy with all the mission stages to obscure the end goal.

Wait…

100% success rate wasn't exactly correct. Itachi gradually shifted his stance. "Why did you kill Shisui?"

Yūrei blinked, taken aback by the topic switch. "He died on a mission, as Danzō wanted. Danzō wanted his eyes. The infiltration was successful, like the Hokage wanted."

Itachi scowled, tensing. "Don't play with me. You didn't give Danzō his eyes."

Yūrei nodded slowly. "I didn't."

Itachi took a step forward, and Yūrei tensed in readiness. Good, so there was a good chance of beating him. Caution meant Yūrei was in danger. "Did you take them?"

"You could put it that way," Yūrei replied offhandedly, stance shifting.

Itachi stilled his emotions and let his eyes evolve. Then he paused again. Yūrei's response was… odd. "And why _wouldn't_ I put it that way?"

"And cut," the Black Mask said flatly, and the reality dissolved around them.

Itachi blinked as he arrived back into reality, his real eyes evolving to catch up with their genjutsu form.

Yūrei used that brief interval to look away, before Itachi could resume the eye contact and throw him into Tsukuyomi. "I hope that information makes you happy."

Kisame blinked as Samehada growled softly and moved slightly under the bandages. Something had changed in the situation. The two had gone quiet briefly then suddenly they were at each other's throats. Sharingan genjutsu going on? He slowly shifted in his seat, arm moving closer to the handle of the sword. Chances are they weren't going to attack him, but crossfire was dangerous, particularly in confined places, and particularly between two S-Ranks.

Itachi scowled, his entire body hovering between battle-ready and relaxed as he tried to make a decision. "I'd prefer more information."

"Well, you're welcome to visit Konoha and find out yourself," Yūrei said flatly.

He was closed off, in body language, tone, wording. Itachi tutted, eyes briefly moving to reanalyse the scene. The diners were carefully not looking at them, all focusing on their own meals. All three S-Ranks had moved in their seats slightly, all ready for battle. There was no killing intent yet, Itachi wasn't that sloppy, but the atmosphere had rocketed in tension.

If he went for Yūrei now… Kisame would likely just stand clear, since it had nothing to do with him. But attacking in a restaurant Yūrei had picked… bad idea. Yūrei was a seal master and this may well be a shadow clone anyway.

Frustratingly, Tsukuyomi would have worked if Itachi had managed Mangekyō eye contact. Seals and shadow clones wouldn't make Yūrei proof against Tsukuyomi, just resistant. A genjutsu could be released with a seal, and a shadow clone would pop if tortured too much, but an illusion that expanded time would mean there was still significant time to access the mind before the strain popped it. True, time would be limited in Tsukuyomi to less than three days if the chakra network destabilised or a seal disturbed it prematurely, genjutsu would last maybe a few hours minimum, but this was info on Shisui.

But now there was no chance of Tsukuyomi being applied to Yūrei. If anyone knew better about looking in the eyes of someone with Sharingan, he did.

Attacking him now would do nothing but cut off the only source outside of Jiraiya about what was happening in Konoha… and the _only_ source to the Uchiha survivors. Even the Hokage didn't know about them. And it would leave whatever he did with Shisui gone forever.

It wouldn't help.

It wouldn't.

It took quite a while for that logic to finally sink into him and calm him down in front of the person who had murdered his closest friend.

"Are you two okay?" Kisame asked cautiously, arm having moved to the handle of his sword.

The waitress came back, hesitating as Itachi slowly evened out his expression.

"We're S-Ranks for a reason, Kisame, are any of us _really_ okay?" Yūrei spoke airily, but his voice still had that inflection, an emotion Itachi couldn't place.

"Point," Kisame acquiesced, a small smile appearing, but his stance not relaxing in the slightest.

"I could force you to calm down, Itachi…" Itachi blinked as he recalled why Yūrei was booted out of Konoha, "…but let's remain allies. While we're in Akatsuki, at least."

Kisame's eyes shifted to Itachi to view his response.

"Fine," Itachi agreed slowly, and _very_ begrudgingly.

"Your tea… sir?" The waitress was watching the exchange warily.

Yūrei glanced at her, and her eyes glazed over. She walked over, put the plates down and walked back out.

Kisame picked up his tea, sniffing it, sipping, then drinking. Itachi duplicated, both of them having similar poison-checking training. Yūrei's profile didn't match with a poison attack and it was clear the restaurant choice was as random as his choice to go to a restaurant. Hell, Itachi had worked with him quite a few times on missions – it was always a weapon, even small ones.

Kisame finished quickly and put his cup down with a _clink_, his arm dropping from his sword handle with a sigh. "Yūrei, why did you call us two here? Was it just to piss off Itachi?"

Yūrei blinked, and then smiled. "Well, no. I just wanted some tea."

"You're not drinking," Kisame pointed out dryly.

"No one can see my face."

"Then why did you order it?" Itachi pressed, feeling a bit more respect for Kisame. Apparently the shark-man didn't care for Ghost's aura of mystery.

"Well, on that, my lips are sealed." Yūrei smiled, laying a paper seal on the desk, putting the tea on top of it and activating.

The seal was a reverse-summon. Itachi mentally cursed as Yūrei's meal vanished. That meant this Yūrei was not the original after all.

"Are you somewhere else right now?" Kisame guessed, a grin appearing as he worked it out.

"Probably," Yūrei answered cryptically, a small smirk appearing.

"Clever move," Kisame allowed, eyes darting to Itachi. "Itachi looked a bit upset with you."

"Oh, that wasn't the point," Yūrei dismissed the praise. "I just never show my face… and it's rare I ever show my original self either."

"You could have sent it to a clone," Kisame considered. "Covering up that you're the original."

"That's true. It'd make Itachi here desire to fight me less. But is it worth it to delay the enjoyment of the tea to stay alive?" Yūrei mused, gazing into the distance.

Itachi blinked at him slowly, raising an eyebrow. "…No?"

"No," Yūrei agreed firmly.

* * *

Naruto scratched his head, watching with a heavy expression as Yasha strode off. To be honest, he was looking forward to a meal at home, a victory meal after the first day of missions. To be fair, he hadn't actually _asked_ Yasha to be home today, but it was puzzling how Yasha put no weight on the things Naruto found important.

There was something about Sasuke that made Naruto want to be his rival, and surpass him. There was this urge inside. Maybe it was just because Sasuke was the top of the class… but it felt more important than that. Naruto normally had good instincts, and these were pretty strong urges.

To be honest, Naruto kinda wanted to surpass Yasha too. Yasha was incredibly clever – he had strategies, and secret techniques that Naruto had no idea how they worked or where he got them from. The sheer speed he could move was amazing – even if he had seriously injured himself using that speed, it said quite a lot that he was willing to risk that sort of damage to let the team pass.

And he stood up for Naruto in a heartbeat. As soon as there was anyone starting to confront Naruto, Yasha would immediately engage and become ten times more intimidating. He had this sort of… focus. Sasuke did the same thing, all the time. Their eyes would narrow and they'd concentrate on the opponent.

But with Sasuke, it was focus to win. He was determined to win. But Yasha's battle aura was far more bloodthirsty; it felt like he wanted to tear them to pieces.

There had to be a lot of darkness in someone for that sort of aura to be so readily available. The blond didn't like to admit it, but it was true nonetheless.

Naruto sighed, turning back to walk home. In contrast, now he considered it, Yasha never gave off that aura during the Academy spars. He was never serious with them.

Yasha was odd that way – he was this weird mix. It was like he was two people – one cool, calm, smart, caring, and the other angry, controlling, possessive.

Yasha was thoughtful about Naruto, and he was really kind to kids – that babysitting mission for example. Naruto knew Yasha had babysat a few times, but he was _really_ good with kids. He got Miyako quiet in seconds, every time she cried. And Naruto had seen the face Yasha had made at her when he thought no one was looking – it was this wearied, loving look. For some reason, it made Naruto's heart ache.

Yasha paid for Naruto's food, drink, clothes, rent… and Naruto still remembered being called an idiot by a half-asleep brunette for offering to leave his apartment… the apartment Naruto didn't really have a right to be in.

Yasha cared for kids, so much it was obvious what his big secret involved. Only kids invoked that sort of response from Yasha – who else would he be going out to feed with his extra food?

His housemate thought everything over so much, but sometimes Naruto got the impression Yasha wasn't honest with his own feelings. He did the right thing, but he lied to himself about the reason why he was doing it. He took on the role of a bad guy, a monster – he smiled whenever he was called any nickname Naruto hated, like it made him happy to be called a monster, a demon, a devil, or when he was told to rot, he just grinned sadistically.

Yasha did all the actions a good guy would do, but always with the cover story of an evil reason. He insisted on being in the middle, some sort of grey. If he did something bad, he justified it with a morally-good reason. If he did something good, he justified that with a morally-evil reason. He was experienced enough with words to twist things in the complete opposite direction of the truth, so you could never work out what his true intention was.

Yasha wasn't straightforward about what he wanted to be. If he wanted to be a good guy, why didn't he just be one?

And if he wanted to be evil… Naruto frowned. Could he _really_ be that? Surely he was too kind for it.

Naruto wasn't really sure what to make of him. Most of the time, he thought Yasha wasn't certain himself why he was doing something. Yasha seemed only happy with being unquestioned – he'd have such a spin on things he could call black white and white black. He insisted on being completely ambiguous about what his true motives were.

That's probably why he was fine with being called something evil. He never really got upset at that, because to him it was just as true as calling him something good.

When he was insulted, he just smirked, like he knew something that they didn't. Naruto remembered when he was much younger, he had once cried for hours when someone had been really mean to him. Yasha would have just brushed it off with that smirk.

But surely he couldn't be happy pretending to be evil. He was really kind under all that – Naruto could tell if funds had run out, Yasha would be making him a portion at home and eating nothing himself. He put others first all the time.

It hurt to see him get insulted and agree with it. No person should be called a monster, especially not someone that kind. It made Naruto angry to think about it, but there was no way he could talk Yasha out of it. Yasha would spin the whole conversation around, and make him feel like it was a pointless concern.

Naruto paused. "Wait… I'm the same," he realised, his eyes wide.

He was fine with being hurt, he was used to it, but Yasha being hurt was another matter. He had seen him on the Hokage monument on that night long ago, near death, attacked by his own bloodline.

Naruto's fist clenched tight unconsciously. He would never allow something like that to happen again, he'd definitely fight to protect Yasha.

And on Yasha's side, Yasha was fine with being hurt – he ignored injuries during battles, insults he accepted breezily – and he couldn't stand Naruto getting hurt. He'd stand up for him, give off such an aura most people ran just from that, and then if they stayed hostile, he'd fight to defend him.

They were mirror copies.

Naruto blinked in shock, his mind blown from the realisation. A slow smile grew on his face. How did that even happen? He thought he was completely different to Yasha, but they had something in common.

Although, true, Yasha wasn't going to spend the night at home (most likely anyway, but he was kinda unpredictable), it was definite that they would have more time together now they were on a team.

Yasha was even thoughtful enough to spend time with Sasuke trying to bring the team together. While Sasuke looked really awkward during the meal, it was definitely a good thing it had happened. There was more of a trust and comradeship between the three now.

Sasuke had even helped with setting Yasha's leg during the bell test too. …That scream had made Naruto's heart stop. He didn't even know how he had gotten out the swamp as fast as he did – it was all a blur of fear and anger at Kakashi.

Kaka-sensei was alright to him now, if a bit weird and lazy. He seemed a bit sad too, a bit like everyone else on the team. All three had this sort of hidden darkness in them, a morbid sadness.

Naruto frowned. He had decided to move past the sadness and make everyone recognise him. But Sasuke had no happy ending. His entire clan was killed, by two people. Naruto didn't even know how to regain happiness after something like that.

And Yasha… he had apparently killed child abusers. He had seen someone getting abused.

Maybe _he_ was abused. Naruto's stride froze. "No…"

Suddenly the distrust of everyone, and extra care for kids, made perfect sense. But no… Yasha was too strong for that… Surely he couldn't have been…

The Uzumaki shook himself violently. No, something like that couldn't have happened. With Yasha's bloodline, it was impossible. The insects took care of every injury and attacker – they could attack and shred anything. They even apparently took care of diseases… apart from the stomach bug.

Speaking of which… Naruto turned, frowning, wondering whether to quickly run after Yasha and check how he felt. He did throw up in the morning and the middle of the day. Oddly, though, he seemed fine. But wandering off at odd hours by himself… it was weird how he was still doing that despite his illness.

For some reason, Naruto had the impression the two things were related, the puking and the odd hours. If he could, he would help with both, but Yasha seemed to blithely ignore injuries and diseases, and be fine with running himself into the ground. He insisted on not getting help, because that sort of thing he didn't really care about.

The Uzumaki wasn't sure what to make of it. He really wanted to investigate, but Yasha had never liked it when Naruto tried to help him uninvited. Every time, he'd act oddly, like he had expected Naruto to do nothing, and Naruto had actually disappointed him with trying to help.

Naruto always felt frustrated about that, but it was part of Yasha's personality to handle things his way, so he couldn't really do anything to change it. Yet Yasha had never told him to do anything significant. It was almost like Yasha didn't trust him – no, to put it more accurately, it was more like Yasha was treating him like he needed to be protected.

But he was a shinobi! When would Yasha trust him?!

Rather than confront Yasha and argue about it – Naruto knew better than anyone how well Yasha could argue people into things – the blond resolved to make himself more useful. It was frustrating to admit, but every other member of Team 7 appeared more competent than he was. By comparison to their calm efficiency, Naruto had to admit he stood out like a sore thumb.

He felt a titanic amount of energy constantly – it made him constantly want to move, and move quickly. But the harder the Uzumaki tried to prove himself, the more things seemed to go wrong. He tried painting the fence quicker than Sasuke, and rather than efficiency, it became a mess – even when he'd finished the paint bucket was in _just_ the wrong place to royally screw things up. If Yasha hadn't moved so quickly, he would have been covered with paint.

When the baby pooped itself, Naruto wasn't sure what to do, he didn't want to touch it. Once again Yasha stepped in.

At least Naruto wasn't alone on that – Sasuke looked just as nervous with the baby as Naruto had been. The blond smirked at the memory. Sasuke's widened eyes and holding the baby at arm's length, it was comical to remember.

He climbed the steps to his apartment, still musing. When it came to a task, Naruto could at best be equal with Sasuke, and Yasha went at his own pace, which was sometimes a better result than both of them.

How could he prove his worth to Yasha? He had hoped to show off his Kage Bunshin, but even in the exam, it was useless against Kakashi. And Kakashi wouldn't even let him use it during missions – much to Naruto's annoyance.

But there was only two things Naruto was particularly good at – Henge, and Kage Bunshin.

Neither of them were that helpful outside of beating up bad guys. Naruto still struggled with kanji – although he _kinda_ knew quite a lot of them from usage, the fact they all had multiple meanings had mostly eluded him. Most kanji were made up of other kanji, but only a particular combination and pattern worked to produce another kanji – there was at least five ways to write "some", and picking the right meaning but the wrong kanji, as a component of another kanji was wrong … Putting bird kanji over a tree kanji meant gather, to one side of the tree meant sweet oak or mallet, put a couple extra lines and it meant authority or rights… It was highly confusing.

Memorisation wasn't Naruto's skill set by any stretch of the imagination, so he wasn't faring well.

Although with clones he could improve his battle speed by fighting himself… or several of himself… it was very hard to gauge his own level. Which meant if there was any progress gained, it wasn't obvious.

Yasha had come up with two styles of fighting by himself, with no one teaching him. Slip Style was one of them, Naruto forgot the other. It kind of made Yasha look elegant – he sort of smoothly slid around any attacks.

He unlocked the door and stepped inside, by default checking for explosive notes but they were gone. Oh yeah, that black-masked ANBU had removed them. Naruto grinned. Maybe he could find that ANBU and get him to train him? But he'd never found an ANBU's hideout.

But that was before. Now that he had shadow clones… "Yosh! I'll find one of those ANBU and get them to train me, dattebayo!" he decided cheerfully, fist pumping, before his hands set into a familiar cross pattern.

* * *

Sasuke sighed as the supper cooked in front of him, a smile forming unawares as he thought over his first day as a genin. Yasha had performed very well – surprisingly good with kids. Hadn't he babysat for a while? Before Itachi…

Anyway, it was a good thing he was on the team. Now that the first day was over, Sasuke felt a bit more relaxed around Yasha. And it was annoying, but he had been the one to grab the bells.

And he was the type who could read anyone's weaknesses. Sasuke frowned. _'Does he know my weaknesses? Do I have some I don't know of?'_

Naruto also could pull his weight, and for some reason, he had more of an urge to beat Naruto than Yasha. There was this inner urge to beat him, making Sasuke rise to every challenge Naruto gave.

The odd thing was, when Yasha had said he would beat Sasuke without using his hands, Kakashi had merely said "not in the village, Yasha-kun". He didn't even question whether he was capable. Sasuke smelled a rat.

What was his bloodline again? Flesh-eating insects. Sasuke frowned. Well, if they could attack anything he wanted, Yasha would only have to mentally order them to attack.

In that case, Yasha was completely overpowered. But that didn't make any sense… during the bell exam, he didn't use them. Unless he simply didn't want to…

Yasha held his cards close to the chest. He planned for the future battles before they happened; didn't reveal any tricks he could get away without revealing.

Made sense… he was relatively new to the village after all. He didn't really know any of Team 7, bar Naruto. He was lazy in battles and overly cautious – maybe even paranoid. Sasuke wasn't sure if that was a good trait. He would have called it a bad one easily before _that night_, but now… he wasn't sure.

Still, Yasha had promised to help him kill Itachi. And if he could control his insects like that, then depending on how dangerous they were… it could be a piece of cake.

He did pull super-speed out of nowhere, so who knew what the full extents of his abilities were. Maybe he had a super-strength ability as well. One could only guess.

_'But,'_ Sasuke scowled, flipping the food over, _'regardless of whether Yasha's more powerful, I'm still going to be landing the final hit.'_

Although, Sasuke doubted Itachi would even face off with Yasha. He seemed quite adamant that his younger brother was going to be the way he "tested his power". If Yasha was with Sasuke and he directly told Sasuke to attack him one-on-one, Sasuke would definitely tell Yasha to stand aside.

And Yasha would do it. He had some semblance of honour under all that misdirection; he was very fair with how he did things. It wouldn't be much of a friend to deny Sasuke the battle his life has been built towards.

As Sasuke tipped the pan into a plate, he was struck with a thought. Did Naruto really know Yasha? The blond was an idiot, that much was obvious – but while not admirable in the ninja world, he stated his mind honestly, and you needed honesty in an ally.

He spent more time around him, so could Naruto see through Yasha?

Yasha wasn't honest… or at least, it was difficult to say if he was, but he _was_ fair. Sasuke knew he could trust him to be that. When Yasha offered to train everyone else, the results of that were pretty much equivalent for all the genin in Team 7. Yasha got more of an award, as he achieved the genin rank, but then it _was_ completely his techniques and strategy that won him the bell. The other two had been floundering in a swamp. So it was only fair he get the rank.

The rules of the bell test were clear from the beginning. _'Although,'_ Sasuke snorted, _'Yasha still managed to find a loophole.'_ He snickered, and then a thought hit him. _'…No, actually, __**two**__ loopholes.'_

But when Yasha was told he couldn't give everyone equivalent rewards, so despite their efforts Sasuke and Naruto would fail drastically – he chucked the bell away in disgust at the unfairness.

Sasuke always had a strong sense of justice, even before _that_ night. All three boys knew that they were going to go back; they knew it was the right thing to do, and Yasha would have refused to be a genin even if Kakashi had forced him. Yasha seemed to have the same emphasis on justice that Sasuke did – maybe that was why the two hit it off in the Academy despite not much talking.

From what Sasuke could make of Yasha, he was fair, lazy, deceptive, powerful, and deviously clever. A person could watch him for weeks and still not have a full picture. He'd make a good ally, simply because someone who was a dark horse to his teammates would appear even worse to an enemy.

With Yasha, he gleefully played off that knowledge; sadistically rubbing in the lack of knowledge. Of course, it was very irritating for the allies he did that too, but for an enemy, it would be nerve-racking as well. Thankfully, Sasuke had yet to be Yasha's enemy, and he wasn't sure he ever wanted to be. He got the impression that even in a fight to the death, Yasha wouldn't use every technique he had.

But when Yasha had said he'd met one of Sasuke's family, and they'd asked Yasha to take care of him… that was dumbfounding. Not because it was a lie, but because it _couldn't_ be. It was too obvious to be one, and it benefited Yasha nothing to say it in that moment – Yasha had the bell, and was crippled, he wouldn't turn Sasuke on him while he was defenceless. Even if he was testing Sasuke in some way, he wouldn't say such a horrific lie.

And Yasha had a good sense of justice. It just didn't fit.

Sasuke pulled cutlery out of a drawer and moved to the dining room, the clock echoing loudly in the empty house. He knew why it didn't fit. What Yasha was saying had to be true.

And if it was true… there was the question of who said it. Sasuke frowned as he ate.

Actually, now he considered it, who could have had the opportunity to speak to Yasha? It made no sense. His father and mother had been home when they died – Sasuke winced at the memory – and with his dad being chief of the police force, that was odd from the start. So Itachi and Yūrei had managed to pull the whole operation off so silently Fugaku didn't know about it, or he knew what was coming and refused to fight his son.

Either way, Yasha would have no reason to be near Sasuke's home. But then the only other member of the family outside the house was…

Sasuke choked, coughing violently, his eyes wide. Could it be…? Wait… "take care of Sasuke"? Could Itachi have ordered Yasha to keep Sasuke alive until they finally battled?

Gulping down some water, he coughed a few more times, eyes watering. If that was the case… why would Yasha hide it? Well, being scared of Itachi made sense. Powerful or not, Yasha was no match for Itachi. If Sasuke were to die, it'd be obvious what Itachi would do if he had threatened Yasha.

Come to think of it… hadn't Yasha said "Itachi didn't attack me because my bloodline made it obvious I wasn't Uchiha"? Why didn't Yasha simply say his older brother didn't attack him because Itachi never saw him?

They _must_ have met.

And if they met, there was a possibility that they talked. And if they talked, it was likely Itachi did threaten him.

So… Yasha was going to protect Sasuke. _'That explains why Yasha offered to help me kill Itachi so easily – if his own life is at stake, it makes __**perfect**__ sense.'_

Everything slotted together, and Sasuke couldn't help but wonder if he'd sussed it out exactly. Of course, there was a chance Yasha lied, or that he _did_ meet with his parents. It'd have to be while Itachi was about to kill them; they wouldn't say something like that otherwise.

The Hokage throwing an S-Rank status on the identity of who said that was bullshit, any idiot could tell that. If it were true, Yasha wouldn't mention the message at all. Plus, knowing which dead person said it wouldn't change anything.

_'Unless… it __**wasn't**__ a dead person.'_ Sasuke's eyes widened.

In other words, Itachi. Would Yasha withhold who said it otherwise?

Yasha could use who said it as a bribe, but just a name wasn't really worth much for that. If he had said the person and not the message, that would be a significant bribe. In fact, he could have obscured the message more than he did, and still used it as a bribe.

Something along the lines of "your mother gave me a message, so I have to look after you". That wouldn't say what the message was and Sasuke would have been very curious.

Either Yasha was working for Itachi willingly to protect Sasuke, or he was threatened into doing that (something like "Sasuke is my way of proving my strength. If he dies early, I'll be coming after you").

It'd take quite a preparation to get Yasha to spill if it was a threat. Yasha played things very close to the chest by default – he was used to concealing information. He did it to levels that weren't even necessary.

So the best idea… was surprise. Confront Yasha looking like Itachi, and seeing how he reacted. If he freaked out, his mission to protect Sasuke was obviously Itachi threatening him. If he didn't, then…

_'No, that won't work.' _Sasuke cursed inwardly. Itachi was an S-Rank missing-nin, Yasha's ally or not. He had no business being in Konoha, and Yasha would obviously react with apprehension. If they were working together voluntarily, Itachi would still have to put up a front of not working with Yasha around any other Konoha folk.

So Yasha would expect to be attacked. At any rate, someone who slaughtered their own clan wouldn't be too far from doing the same to someone they were allied with anyway.

Sasuke poked at the remains of his food and sighed. Somehow, he'd lost his appetite.

* * *

A dark-haired boy frowned, striding with his hands in his pockets down the street.

Yasha had calculated it was more likely right now than ever for him to be getting followed, but he hadn't seen anyone tracking him. But he was well aware of mental biases; confirmation bias (you place more importance on what you see) and availability bias (you think what you see is the most valid perception of truth), so he ignored the strong desire to assume no one was there.

He scratched his head, still pondering as he made his way home. Observers weren't a problem, as long as he could have at least one room where they would not physically see him or sense his chakra while he sneakily made a shadow clone. Hopefully his bathroom would be good enough, ignored by them – small, one door, no windows.

Maybe.

It might be an idea to clone in various public buildings out of sight. That way, if the observers did manage to observe his entire apartment around-the-clock, they'd still never see him cloning. He'd have to pick a building at random and have a long list, or they'd just bug the one he was going to use in advance. Everyone had some form of schedule; Yasha didn't like being predictable, but even he kept things organised.

A Henge'd-tiny clone was enough to bug a building, which made things a problem. It may be an idea to leave a clone lying around the next place he was going to clone – giving him the benefit of a longer period before the former clone expired, and knowing if anyone was tracking him around.

Going to random public buildings would be odd behaviour, though. It might increase his heat.

The Death Release carrier wondered if flooding the room he was in with his insects would conceal his actions. Or destroy any other parties' electronic/Henge'd bugs.

Were his insects smart enough to attack anything out of the ordinary or anything from dangerous observers?

…Yasha frankly doubted it. They even attacked _him_ during the times he used them. If that wasn't unintelligent targeting he didn't know what was.

To be fair, having a weapon hurt the wielder was probably the wielder's fault, but Yasha was fairly certain if the insects were intelligent, they just weren't communicating that fact to him, so it was their fault again.

No reason to get distracted though.

The fact was, just one person seeing a Yasha clone, just once, and the entire possibility of doing things secretly was gone from that moment, to say nothing of raising dubiousness about Yasha's normal behaviour beforehand; all that time before when he might've been doing something else at the same time.

In short, people's ability to trust him would plummet. Under no circumstances could Yasha be seen cloning, or have two of him in the same place. Even as a matter of life or death – it wasn't simply _his_ life at stake after all. There was seven kids depending on him to be secretive. If it was life or death, they would survive; Keito would be smart enough to go to the Hokage once they ran out of food and money.

And maybe Ino would visit them. Yasha scowled. Probably she would, even if it were just to inform the kids their beloved carer had kicked the bucket.

And then the beans would spill… Oh, how would they. She'd Yamanaka their secrets out of them in an hour max. Toddlers just couldn't keep secrets.

Maybe she visited them today?

Nah. Unlikely she was that bold. If she did Keito would block her out. Yasha had told him often enough about the problems of Henge and that no one would ever visit their place on legitimate business. He wasn't dumb enough to let anyone stay around, and if she did visit Yasha would be told as soon as he got there.

Or maybe it would be Naoki who blocked her off? Yasha snorted.

Ah, Naoki. Where to begin. Freakish intelligence, and apparently knowledge of E-Ranks as well as large chakra stores to match. Still easily tricked (thankfully), and apparently not completely familiar with how things worked in the real world, so at least she didn't have knowledge that was unusual. Yasha could still manipulate her, but points of note: she had Henge, she had high intelligence, and she was a loose cannon.

There were reasons to keep and to kill her.

Right now, killing someone he'd gone to the effort of rescuing because she _might_ do something stupid was premature. He'd confronted her about her unnecessary exposure; now he just had to see how she reacted to his confrontation. If he could control her properly, then there wasn't a problem, but if she didn't respect his authority, he couldn't keep her around.

Yasha had clearly blown her away with his perceptiveness. Hopefully, she'd feel too much like she'd get caught to do any more sneaking around. At the very least, he'd curbed that desire.

But he'd just have to wait and see.

* * *

Orochimaru scowled as he made his way to the nearest hideout, his stride slow and deliberately calm. Itachi was too strong, Yūrei almost definitely more so, and Pein probably even more still. The only hope for a decent doujutsu that wasn't grafted was Sasuke.

And there was definitely going to be some delicious satisfaction when he beat the crap out of Itachi in Sasuke's body. He'd bide his time, though. He'd act like Sasuke was trying to gain control the whole time; and if Itachi ever managed to pin him down, he'd leak a snow-coloured snake and make Itachi spare him.

Oh yeah, Itachi had feelings for Sasuke. Who knew what kind, but that sick bastard had killed his entire clan, yet couldn't kill his younger brother. Normally someone reserved their strongest feelings for their mother, or father… not their younger brother. But human relationships always eluded Orochimaru, you couldn't put a figure to them or nail down a multiplier in power, yet Konoha gave the impression friendship was the same as a power boost. From Orochimaru's perspective, at best it was a stamina boost.

Kabuto had reported the team arrangement as expected, and was standing by for orders. Team 7 looked heavily overpowered – a Jinchūriki, a Death Release carrier, and the last Uchiha.

Was the Third trying to impress everyone at the next Chuunin exam by destroying every opponent? There wasn't a single team set up for the Chuunin that powerful, bar Suna and their Jinchūriki with his two easily-chuunin-level siblings. Orochimaru was genuinely interested as to what Hiruzen was thinking – such a display wasn't like him at all; it was an act even worth respect.

Depending on how Kakashi trained the team, all three could get extremely powerful – for genin. At any least, their team will become very interesting. Kakashi was ANBU captain, and at one point was the captain over Itachi; maybe he even worked with Yūrei at one point.

Sasuke should get very powerful, particularly if Orochimaru did go ahead with his plan to get Suna in a war against Konoha. If that were possible, Sasuke would definitely be heavily trained, otherwise Kakashi could be lulled into developing him slowly and focusing more on teamwork than power – _urgh_ – and Sasuke would be weak, which was good for taking over, but very bad for power once taken over.

Stealing Sasuke's body would gain Itachi's attention in some way – someone that dedicated to their younger brother wouldn't leave him unmonitored – so it was best he take it in a state powerful enough to control it. Unfortunately there wasn't much time in a body that wasn't prepared to receive him – the constant inner battle eroded at the time Orochimaru could retain his hold on the body.

If he could draw him away with lures of power, or convince him of Konoha's weakness, that would be ideal.

And preferably, he ought to capture the Jinchūriki in the process. It might be difficult trying to pull the Bijū out into someone useful – and Orochimaru didn't trust anyone else with that amount of power – but last resort he could get some genetic material from Sasuke and implant the Bijū into the offspring.

Uchiha Jinchūriki… you don't get more powerful than that.

But, he'd have to make it look like the Uzumaki died. Otherwise Konoha would be sending out armies before he managed to harness the power. Konoha's upper ranks were completely lost to his location, since Jiraiya's spy network only found a couple of Orochimaru's hideouts, but Danzō would be able to do some serious damage.

Planting agents into the Land of Sound would be very Danzō. So Orochimaru would have no choice but to keep all his minions where they were just before he got Konoha on his case. Preparation to evacuate or protect against invasion force wouldn't do.

Plus, even if Danzō's infiltrators were watching, all Orochimaru needed was to go to an empty hideout, and Danzō wouldn't even bother disclosing Orochimaru's bases he knew of to Konoha. After all, why waste Konoha's forces with invading bases Danzō knew the Jinchūriki wasn't even in?

Uchiha Jinchūriki… well, Rinnegan would be nice, but one step at a time. He had to keep an eye on Akatsuki – Sasori's belief that Kabuto was still his spy should help with that. But Sasori's remote technique had yet to release, so until then there was no info on Akatsuki's movements as Kabuto had yet to meet with Sasori.

But since it would release when Sasori needed an update on Orochimaru, for watching Akatsuki that was sufficient; Orochimaru would know that Akatsuki wasn't deciding to pursue him until Kabuto's seal finally released.

Orochimaru knew the gist of Akatsuki's plan: First, gather cash via mercenary work. Second, gather Bijū for a massive weapon. Third, world domination.

None of those objectives really _required_ them attacking the Sannin that betrayed them. He had no Bijū, so he had nothing they needed.

Orochimaru regarded his ring briefly, but dismissed it; the sealing ring wasn't too important, as there was one spare. They weren't hurrying to find a person to give it to.

But if he caught the Uzumaki Jinchūriki, then there'd be an obvious reason for them to attack him. And if Itachi caught wind of Sasuke captured, then… well, it'd be interesting. Pein wouldn't let Itachi's feelings get in the way of his world domination plan. Besides, Itachi was one person, he couldn't possibly hope to track down Sasuke alone, Pein's approval or no.

Hell, Jiraiya had been trying for years to track down Orochimaru, using a whole network with his pervy novels as funding, and he found nothing.

Orochimaru didn't appoint anyone but the ruthless and loyal as his underlings, and his bases were always far from civilisation or surrounded by hostile terrain. There were few prisoners that managed to escape just the base itself and the environment would ruin any attempt to go far, and none managed to live after they were caught.

If no one even went into the public, there was no chance of spreading information.

So, Itachi was out. Sasuke it was. Now the interesting question was how to go about it. There was enjoyment to be gained from training Sasuke and letting him fight Itachi alone, but Itachi apparently wanted Sasuke to attack him, if the rumours and hints were correct.

_'Ideally, Sasuke should become my subordinate, but with Uchiha pride that's not going to happen easily. I must lure him with power, if nothing else an Uchiha will want that.'_ Orochimaru licked his lips, smirking, and a small frown crossed his head. _'I can taunt him about his inferiority to Itachi. Then the question is, what should I do with his team… a Jinchūriki would be useful for many reasons, even just a sealed up one, but if Akatsuki come down on me in full force I will be permanently running from base to base. Even __**I**__ can't handle that many S-Ranks. They'd corner me.'_

The frown became a scowl._ 'Hell, as much as it pains me to admit it, I couldn't handle Itachi, and it stands I wouldn't be able to handle Pein or Yūrei. Yūrei gives off the impression that he's worse than Itachi. I'll have to ignore or kill the Jinchūriki._

_'Kakashi I can't do anything with, he'll destroy the Sharingan before I can pluck it out his head, and he's an ANBU captain, I'll have to confront him outside Konoha alone or he'll just stall until backup arrives. And finding him outside Konoha alone just isn't going to happen. Even if it did, it's not worth the effort for a single eye. Now if he had dual, I'd think about it, but…'_

With a hand seal he disabled the seals covering the area, and the candles' seals flicked on. He paced onward, still plotting. _'Danzō won't budge about giving me a few Sharingan, even with luring Mangekyō in front of him… in fact that disinterested him. He knows about how to get Mangekyō. I have theories about what grants Mangekyō, and genetics are probably a good part, which would explain why Itachi's keeping Sasuke alive.'_

Passing a couple of trapped doors, the Sannin came to a real one, and pushed it open. No one was meant to be in this base, so the stale air was a relief.

Finally, there was the Death Release kid. He was lethal, manipulative, and _very_ interesting to the Snake Sannin – intriguing bloodline aside, his personality was desirable, and he was known to be prodigy. Passing the Academy in just a few months was pretty unusual – even though the Sannin considered the test pathetically easy, it was unusual both in performance required, and the fact the Hokage allowed it.

Manipulating a manipulator would be a pain, so Orochimaru decided he'd have to figure out Yasha's mindset (i.e. what he wanted), and give him just that, openly, no nefarious subplots or undertones. If it was obvious what the Sannin was doing, Yasha would be straight with him too, and Orochimaru would need a honest answer about whether Yasha was in to further Orochimaru's cause or not.

Manipulators play the long game just as easily as the short ones; it's extremely dangerous to have someone who was dubious like that. For years they could serve you with not even a snide comment about you, then next thing you know you're dying from poison.

It was why the Sannin had such a hard time trusting Kabuto, and he was nothing short of perfectly loyal – according to his snakes, the other people the Sannin had, and all the occasions Orochimaru deliberately gave very dangerous information to him and checked to see if any third party acted on it. Kabuto had yet to spill anything to anyone.

The Sannin couldn't risk threatening or bribing Yasha into it with his own offer. He had to let Yasha set the deal, otherwise the boy wouldn't be convinced and he'd backstab Orochimaru, without hesitation, without indication. His intelligence was unusual, and reading people…

Frankly, Orochimaru was intrigued as to whether Yasha could manipulate his men better than he could, or if the knowledge of relationships was truly worthless. As a scientist, the idea interested him.

_'Everyone has their price… and if Yasha treats people like cattle, he'll make a good officer for me.'_

* * *

**AN:** Note the way Orochimaru and Yasha treat people is very similar. A scientist is used to analysing test subjects, and Orochimaru most of all with his human experiments. Yasha built that analysing ability as both as a self-defence mechanism to predict hostility, and to depersonify people – if you can predict someone you can obscure the validity of their free will, making them more of a NPC than a player.

That's not to say real life people aren't predictable because they have free will. Everyone has their habits and their baseline personality IRL.

Someone programmed to value warrior pride above all else isn't that dissimilar to Vegeta. Wave something about fighting someone strong or boost his ego and you know the results – you can wrap him around your little finger.

Orochimaru simply doesn't understand people and relationships, and once he established that being nice meant he wasted more time on people for insignificant results, he gave it up. It's cheaper and more time-saving to rule with fear, as people will work longer hours for free, which means more resources for himself.

But he doesn't understand relationships, so he thought nothing of betraying the Sannin team, Konoha, society's morals, and look at how he interpreted the relationship between Sasuke and Itachi. I'd give his interpretation merit, since I've never known someone who loves their sibling more than their own mother – in cases where the mother wasn't abusive – but canon Naruto didn't even have homosexuality, so a relationship like _that_ seems pretty outside the scope. Unfortunate for all those… people who write fics supporting that… pairing.

Anyway, enough dankness.

**Please** review – it's what spurs me to work on this. Recommend to fellow fans or the like. Re-read for the subtle foreshadowing and triple meanings, for the hints to Yūrei's real identity, or the Shinigami's real one, question the timings of the past events, and the differing mental personalities and how each person has a different take on the newly arrived Yasha.

I'm not going to abandon the story, but currently there's not enough response for me to move paid hours or what's left of my free time to it. As a result, my writing of this is… sparse. It's not a conscious decision; there's just not much subconscious desire to write the story. My muse is disinterested, and it wants shiny things. Things that don't have much response aren't shiny enough.

If this chapter made you think, please write a review. It's greatly appreciated.

Mucho loveo, ~SortaCore


	37. Dangerous gambling

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

_**Chapter 37: Dangerous gambling**_

* * *

**AN**: 16k words. Give yourselves half an hour to read this one.

Thanks for your reviews on last chapter, guys/gurls. Very appreciated :D  
So that's 7, Bob-Just-Bob, LilyVampire, Risuna23, and other folks. And I tip my hat to DocKucCRO, who clearly doesn't understand what the suspense genre entails.  
To be honest, I wasn't planning for suspense – it's just Yasha's mindset anticipates problems at every corner. He's constantly tense, waiting for the other shoe to drop, and that carries over to the story.

Anyway, back to what I was saying…

Naruto's logic, while very simplistic, doesn't tend to be inaccurate, thanks to Occam's Razor. His logic isn't really real-world-suitable logic, it just… misses all sorts of complex factors. Yet despite that, he has such good luck that it seems to work out for him. I won't hand him things on a silver platter though – he has to work for it.  
Work, I say! _*cracks whip*_

* * *

"Kaka-sensei?" the Death Release user asked innocently.

"Hmm?" Kakashi idly looked up.

Yasha looked more focused than normal. "I need a hand from you, Sensei. I'm sure you know my weak points."

"Hmm. Your bulimia?"

"It's a stomach bug, and that stopped a couple of days ago," Yasha corrected, eye twitching as he tried not to scowl. "Anyway, when I release chakra, I release killing intent. Can you help with that?"

The other two genin were yelling at each other a few metres away, pulling up plants. The D-Rank for gardening was going swimmingly.

Kakashi turned a page. "I can get you to target KI, but normally, you need to be able to conjure it on demand, not without trying. Without trying implies it's the insects releasing it, in which case you'll be better off talking to an Aburame than me."

Yasha blinked, trying to recall what an Aburame was. Oh yeah, insect clan. "Even if it's just my bloodline causing it, it'll make me an easy target on any battlefield and draw attention to myself. Anyway, insect KI aside, I want to target my own KI, if I do have any."

Kakashi's eye trailed over him. Yasha looked more serious than usual. Well, it was a crippling weakness. "I suppose I can do that. What's your chakra control like?"

Yasha shrugged. "Kurenai is of the opinion it's good."

"Kurenai, huh," the jounin mulled. Interesting, might want to talk to her later. She was the "Genjutsu Mistress" wasn't she? Genjutsu required fine control. If it had passed her standards, it _had_ to be good.

Odd that precise chakra control didn't make for precise KI control.

"I think you should talk to an Aburame, though. I'm guessing you're not communicating with your swarms properly," Kakashi advised, idly making a shadow clone seal and popping out four clones.

The original wandered off to check on the other two boys while three of the clones Henge'd into various civilians. The untransformed one beckoned at Yasha. "I need you to think about attacking me."

"As in, to kill you?"

"Yep. Don't put anger in it, just think about it, in any fashion you want to imagine."

A few seconds passed, with no killing intent released.

The clone nodded. "Okay. Now let your chakra leak slightly, don't think about it anymore."

A mild killing intent started to leak as Yasha built up chakra in his hand. The two boys halted to the side, both glancing over at the disturbance.

The lead clone hummed. "Interesting. If you're not thinking of killing me, that shouldn't release anything. Even if you were subconsciously angry at me, it would be near undetectable. Try thinking of me as a friend you trust with your life and in no way want to hurt me."

"It's kinda psychological, huh?" Yasha asked rhetorically, complying. The KI still rolled out, albeit it felt slightly milder to the lead clone.

The clone sighed. "If that's how strong your killer intent is for your closest friends, we've got a lot of work to do."

"It's pretty strong isn't it?" Yasha asked, turning back to the original who was coming back. The two boys were trailing behind him, their earlier argument forgotten.

"'Potent' is probably a better word. Cancel your chakra thing." Kakashi waved vaguely, dispelling all the clones. Yasha wasn't at the level he expected, so the plan he had with the clones wouldn't work. The jounin slumped against the fence, eyes trailing the kids. For once his book was away. "Tell me kids, what do you know about killer intent?"

"Is it a jutsu?" Naruto was, as always, first to speak.

Kakashi hummed. "It is related to chakra, yes. Some people can use it so powerfully it will seem like an outright genjutsu from the effect it has on you. Sasuke?"

Sasuke frowned. Truth be told, he knew nothing about this. "It's closer to a chakra flow. A state of mind."

"Again, not inaccurate." Kakashi nodded his approval. This topic wasn't discussed in any textbook, barring perhaps some in T&amp;I training. "Yasha?"

Yasha whistled, looking up at the sky in thought. "My guess is… judging from how you treated their answers… it's similar to the way regular chakra sensors pick up chakra, and can sometimes feel the basic intent of the person. With killing intent, your body would be more coded to react to that, biologically, and after a while as your chakra stores increase your level of KI you could send against a person would increase proportionally."

Kakashi's eye was wide. Spiritual chakra meant high intuition, and Yasha was meant to be intelligent on top of that, but _damn_. Just a couple of hints from other answers and he had the whole system from pure conjecture. Had Yasha already thought about this? Wouldn't surprise him. "Got it in one."

With a cough, Kakashi hastily continued, hiding his surprise. "Killer intent for genin is mild at best. For chuunin, it will be enough to make a genin like you cute ducklings very scared." Kakashi ignored the half-hearted scowls. "For a jounin, it'll make a genin poop their pants. And for levels higher… it'll make you feel like you're dying before they even attack you."

"Whoooaaa," Naruto drawled out in awe.

Kakashi grinned. "Quite. Now, I'm at a level of an elite jounin, or so…" ANBU was still a secret role, but while it mean strict and high-level training, it wasn't a rank per se. "So if I released the amount I normally would if I were attacking you seriously, you wouldn't stop shaking for a couple of hours."

"Is it worse for chakra sensors?" Sasuke asked thoughtfully.

Kakashi nodded. "Indeed it is. _Far_ worse. A lot of sensor training time goes towards becoming resistant to it. But, as your chakra stores grow, you become more resistant anyway – your own chakra intent won't be overwhelmed so easily, because its own intent will be stronger, so it'll take the edge off."

Yasha spoke up. "Hey, do Bijū have the same sort of KI? I'm surprised it didn't knock out the entirety of Konoha when the Kyuubi attacked long ago. Most people wouldn't have chakra stores to resist it."

Naruto flinched, and Kakashi's eye shifted briefly to him and back to Yasha. "Yes, but Bijū chakra isn't compatible with human chakra, so the intent has less effect. I'd expect the reverse to be true too: a bunch of Kages wouldn't have much effect on a Bijū that somehow had genin levels of chakra stores, for the same reason… but obviously that's just hypothetical, no Bijū has that level. While the Bijū's chakra is extremely intimidating, it's the _potency_ that makes it suffocating. The density, in other words.

"A Bijū doesn't rein in its chakra presence, because it has so much chakra, but humans naturally do – while a Bijū is a primarily chakra being, and is fed chakra by nature, a human is flesh and bone primarily, so its limited chakra has to be retained carefully within its body or it won't survive. For that reason, you'll have a hard time trying to pinpoint chakra coils on a Bijū. Because its chakra leaks everywhere, yet lacks severe intent, you can be physically harmed by it if it's thick enough, as if breathing in a toxic gas."

He paused, looking around. Yasha looked fascinated, Sasuke looked very interested and Naruto… looked a mix of fascinated and overwhelmed by the amount of information.

Such cute genin.

"Human chakra doesn't tend to leak so easily, as while you _could_ flood it out around you without much trouble, you won't be able to pull it back in so easily. Plus, it's essentially pointless gesture anyway, you're just draining your chakra to show off how serious you are. But you may see particularly strong opponents gain chakra auras around them when they get serious, but only once you get to jounin and higher. Their chakra gets so riled up it starts to show, although it's still contained."

The ex-ANBU was giving them the book on it. Normally, he'd teach in short bits, but with Yasha's interest, he knew he'd memorise the whole thing. Sasuke would have no problems either, and Naruto would harass Yasha about it if he couldn't pick it all up.

Kakashi had been unsure, but the lack of a kunoichi did make things easier. Imagine if he had a team which couldn't communicate properly because of a love triangle. Urgh.

Yasha was clearly thinking hard about it, and voiced another question. "Would a Jinchūriki, instead of a Bijū, be capable of massive killing intent then?"

Naruto blinked, looking interested. Kakashi turned back to Yasha, hesitant to answer. "Not using the Bijū's chakra, no." He waved his hand vaguely. "But normally their chakra stores have to increase to match the Bijū they're hosting. So yes, they'll be able to give off quite a big level anyway on their own stores. If they managed to work with their Bijū voluntarily, then I have no idea – it might be possible to increase it even further. But the odds of you ever fighting a Jinchūriki are almost nil; you could count the number of Jinchūriki on your hands."

Sasuke spoke up this time. "How strong is a Jinchūriki?"

The conversation had turned toward something a bit sensitive for one of the members. "Very strong," Kakashi replied vaguely.

"Come _on_, Sensei," Yasha protested, obviously unsatisfied by the response.

Kakashi internally noted Yasha probably wouldn't have insisted if he knew Naruto was a Jinchūriki. The jounin's gaze turned to Naruto, and the blond nodded slightly, unconsciously.

Kakashi felt inclined not to answer for his sake, but it wasn't _really_ a secret. He wasn't talking specifically about Naruto, after all, and it wasn't a village secret either, just the Jinchūriki's identity was. "From what I understand – and this may be inaccurate – there are two different stages of being a Jinchūriki. The first simply have the Tailed Beast inside them. They have large chakra stores, and awful chakra control.

"But the second can use their Beast's chakra; they have even larger stores – actually, they have two stores entirely, cut off their human chakra and they can draw from the Bijū's store, but the Bijū chakra is poisonous to them and whoever they touch. So it's not a seamless switch; the extra power comes at a cost."

Sasuke nodded. "And how strong is a Jinchūriki in comparison to a Kage?"

Kakashi sighed, eyes rolling as he guessed. "You're fighting at minimum a team of jounin. Maximum, they're a Kage or worse. Their chakra control is normally poor, but they can do lots of large-area attacks and they have more speed, strength, and stamina than you, so even hiding isn't going to work."

Yasha was first to think up counter-strategies. "Well, Naruto could just Shadow Clone a few times and let the real one scurry away."

Naruto held up his hand. "Oi. I don't 'scurry'."

Yasha smirked at him and turned to the other brunette. "And Sasuke could just roll over and die."

Sasuke scowled and tossed a punch, but Yasha had already leaned back in anticipation. The manipulator quickly deflected the temper by asking, "And what would _you_ do, Kaka-sensei?"

His sensei snorted. "I wouldn't go anywhere _near_ an enemy Jinchūriki solo. If it happened, I'd use all sorts of earth hiding techniques, anti-tracking, clones, yadda yadda, and get the heck out of there. I wouldn't even bother fighting one on my own."

Yasha nodded slowly. Well, at least he was honest about it. "Couldn't you use gas on them?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No good, you'll need too much of it. They could run too fast out of it or create such a breeze it's cleared in seconds. The Bijū chakra destroys any chemicals you put into their body, much like your swarms do, Yasha-kun."

Yasha frowned. He should've guessed that. "So there's something wrong with my chakra intent?"

The conversation had turned back to killing intent, fortunately for Kakashi. "Normally I'd say so. But you don't have the chakra capacity to produce that level of KI, so it must be your insects giving it off by themselves. They're carnivorous, so maybe that's to be expected, but you won't be able to deal with your KI being released until you can control your insects' bloodlust in some way."

Yasha tutted, turning away. That was a crippling issue – he had no idea how to communicate with his insects. He knew gestures like flicking his fingers worked, and that flooding out chakra with thoughts of where they should go _kind of_ worked… looked like he had to spend a large amount of time training just that.

That was irritating, as KI pulses would draw attention to himself, and he didn't want civilians getting on his case for it. It broadcasted his presence to anyone who knew his ability, so anyone who wanted to observe or track him down could do it with ease. It'd also make any training schedule he had obvious without anyone even watching him.

The fact he pumped out KI whenever he trained would limit him to training in daytime anyway – otherwise it might wake people up, which would get _really_ old, and turn any tired jounin or ANBU into possible threats the next day.

All this made him predictable.

And the surest way to make sure people can't manipulate you is to be unpredictable. Change your schedule all over; switch things around as easily as breathing. Change training locations, eating locations, living locations if possible. Have nothing concrete, make no habits, keep everything vague.

Even with relationships, to an extent – you have to play that a bit more cautiously, so they have a good opinion of you but still can't really predict you. To them, you should be a friend who you trust more because of his past than because you know how he'll behave in the future. Someone you could go to for help with something dodgy you needed done, just as easily as you would go to them for help with something morally sparkly white.

Being unpredictable also gave the option for backstabbing. Yasha saw no reason to take that option with anyone, but the point was, if they tried to backstab _him_, they'd find out the hard way he was ready to counter-backstab.

Anyone who's attacking someone unpredictable can be persuaded that the attacked person would rather join the attacker's cause, or that the attacker confused about what _actually_ happened – and they were attacking under false assumptions.

Or that they share a common enemy.

If the attacker doesn't know how you think, it gives them reason to pause and hear your protests out. Which gives you time to plot your own counters.

It was a safety net that encompassed every person Yasha knew. Even Naruto didn't know for certain about Yasha, for this reason. Yasha wasn't sure if he knew himself, truly, "wear the mask too long you'll become the mask", but he knew his missions were simple, they benefited him, and humanitarianly, they benefited people in general.

Frankly he didn't mind if his methods were black or white, whatever got the job done.

He'd blackmail someone into attacking someone else, if that someone else was secretly a baddie. He'd kill someone good to save multiple other good people. He'd considered these sort of scenarios and his responses before.

It wasn't morally white, but he wouldn't really regret it. He put too much thought into decisions as irreversible as that for him to regret them – he'd think about killing someone for days before he would go ahead with it. The choices he made would have to be the best option, because if someone knew something black you did, it would tar your relationships with them forever.

Yasha shook himself lightly and brought himself back to the present. Brooding over his logic was something he did often, but he never really found fault with it, so the effort was pointless.

Back to what Kakashi was saying.

The KI release was a beacon to any enemy or spy, an interference to civilians, and something incredibly powerful if controlled; the ability to intimidate a person with just a change in your chakra? No technique released onto them, no hand seals?

Yasha had everything to gain and nothing to lose from mastering KI. He resolved to work on this as hard as possible, and Kakashi was all but agreeing to his prioritising. After all, your genin can't keep the "Konoha is nice" impression if they're leaking KI everywhere.

"Kakashi, can you give me some serious training on that?"

"Serious, huh?" Kakashi repeated with a hum.

He didn't seem to be taking it seriously, so Yasha gave a mostly empty threat. "Otherwise I'll have to practice by myself and wake up everyone in Konoha again."

Kakashi frowned. He probably would, not out of spite, but out of necessity. Yasha didn't like being predictable, as any manipulator wouldn't, so he wouldn't like something that announced his presence.

Well, to be fair, no ninja would like being predictable. Yasha just had extra reason not to. He'd train his hardest to remove that limitation, and obviously, training hardest meant training as soon as possible.

Kakashi was now in an awkward position. He wanted to _ease_ the team into D-Rank missions, then into training, C-Ranks, and improve gradually – no rush after all, there wasn't a war on – but with the pace Yasha was setting, the entire team would be rushing into power usage their bodies and minds weren't prepared for.

Unlike Yasha with his KI to train, and Naruto with his massive chakra stores, at this point Sasuke merely had a _good_ chakra store. Any other time he'd be a high genin, perhaps low chuunin, which was amazing for a new genin… but amongst these two, he would be surpassed in a hurry.

Until he brought out Sharingan.

And then… the end result was the team would be taking B-Ranks before they were mentally prepared. They'd have the chakra stores and control, but they wouldn't have time to do enough missions.

The team would turn out just like the Sannin did – a disillusioned mess. Or as Kakashi's team did – killed in action. Rin, Obito, Minato-sensei – all three died early.

It was obvious to Kakashi that the team that got too strong too quickly became a mess.

But not a single genin here would accept his reasoning, though. They lacked the experience to see that they lacked the experience. They were only concerned with strength; Yasha for power to be in control, Sasuke for power to kill Itachi, and Naruto to get everyone to recognise him. Even if they agreed on a slow pace, the agreement would hold little value to them; they'd just end up training themselves outside Kakashi's eye.

Kakashi had to remain their teacher figure, and insist on his pace. He couldn't reveal his reasoning, that would distance them from him. So he had to control their training, especially Yasha, because he was the one character who would find a way to get things done his way.

"I'll be training you three as I see fit," Kakashi replied sternly. He had to make it obvious this was something Yasha had to leave _him_ in control of. "You'll have to trust my judgement as your sensei."

Yasha blinked, opening his mouth to protest, but thought the better of it and shut it again. If he was accepting Kakashi as his teacher, he had to accept his teaching methods – it only made sense.

"Fair?" Kakashi asked him flatly, eye narrowed.

The brunette scowled. He didn't want to turn Kakashi into an enemy, or blot him out the picture. But he honestly didn't think Kakashi knew what he was doing. After all, the attack from Orochimaru would be coming in a matter of half a year or so. Kakashi had no way of knowing that.

If he spilled the beans on that, to Kakashi or anyone else, chances are Orochimaru's spies would find out – after all, they'd have to prepare the entire village for a village-wide attack.

But if he insisted and messed up his relationship with Kakashi, then he could be deemed disloyal; Kakashi would have ammo against him. Yasha could become a defiant idiot to the other two boys, he might receive training he didn't want… this was a no-win situation right now.

Worst, this was a time-critical response. The other two boys were looking at him strangely, not realising what a burden this decision was. If Yasha delayed too long he might as well have said no.

"I will defer to you, Sensei," he replied, although it took effort to make it not sound heavily reluctant.

Kakashi's eye widened a bit. He was expecting a yes, but that was a weird way of saying it. (He had figured Yasha wouldn't be dumb enough to say no; that could only resort in disciplinary action.)

Anyway, control established.

Time to defuse the other two boys from thinking the KI training was favouritism. He turned to them, eye-smiling. "As Yasha has a serious problem with his bloodline, I'll be training him earlier than you two, as his problem is something you two won't have an issue with."

"Yasha has a problem?" As always, Naruto was worryingly sensitive on that topic.

"Basically, he can't use any technique without it feeling like he's going to kill you." Kakashi turned to Yasha. "Demonstrate, put on a Henge, only for half a second or so."

Yasha sighed, putting his hands up and making the seal (unnecessarily; he could do it seal-less by now, but one had to keep up appearances). "Henge!"

Kakashi's stance automatically became ready as some _serious_ KI washed over him. Sasuke and Naruto both gasped in shock, hands coming up defensively and stumbling backwards. Yasha released an instant after he applied the technique, but both boys were gasping for air, eyes wide in fear.

"What was _that?"_ Naruto stammered, teeth chattering.

"That's the bloodthirstiness of millions of carnivorous, microscopic insects becoming active in his body," Kakashi clarified, stance relaxing. He knew it wasn't a threat, but if Yasha had kept that up much longer, both boys would be out cold, and he would have a hard time fighting off his counter-attack instincts.

Yasha shrugged, putting his hand on Naruto's shoulder soothingly, the blond's eyes flickering over his face rapidly. "So if I ever use a technique near any of you…"

"He'll knock both of you out in seconds if he can't control that," Kakashi explained calmly. "So do you two agree he needs to get rid of that before I start you two on training?"

Sasuke nodded slowly, eyes still wide. His mind was flickering back to the time Itachi had stared him down, the parents' corpses at his feet. _'So that was the feeling… high-level killing intent…'_ He scowled angrily, turning away. _'I thought I was being a coward, but he just overloaded my chakra intent. Anything to strike more fear.'_

Naruto was more energetic with his nodding. His voice was noticeably different. "But, but… how are you going to st-stop that, da-dattebayo?"

Kakashi smiled reassuringly. "I'm going to train him how to control his chakra intent."

Naruto didn't grasp it. "B-but h-how are you go-going to do th-that?"

Yasha shrugged. "I'm going to be thinking a lot, basically?"

Kakashi nodded. "That's the general idea. The more you get control over your chakra's intents, the more you control it."

"Ohhh… Is th-that all?" Naruto turned away, laughing sheepishly.

Everyone else on the team blinked at his turnaround in attitude. The blond grinned at them, suddenly cheerful. "Then no problem, Yasha's good at thinking!"

Yasha's jaw went slack. He wasn't sure whether to snort, facepalm, smirk or sigh at the response.

* * *

"So these beetles, note how they are more responsive but less accurate with their responses."

"Hmm. I also note they are on a different pheromone frequency…"

"Shino, my man!" Yasha yelled.

Shino turned, his gaze trailing his upsetting classmate. "Yes, Yasha-kun."

"I need some guidance from you," Yasha said grinning. He turned to Shiho and quickly shifted attitudes. "And Aburame-san, please pardon my intrusion."

"It is not necessary to apologise. You are welcome here," the Aburame head said neutrally.

"That makes a first," Yasha muttered under his breath, although both Aburame heard it clearly.

"What is the guidance you need, Yasha-kun?"

Yasha straightened. "I need help controlling my insects' killer intent. They seem to leak it whenever I use chakra. Do you have any suggestions?"

The two Aburame stared at him.

"Stop being so angry," Shino said calmly.

"Eh?" Yasha paused, put out. "I'm not angry?"

"You must be. Your insects, however carnivorous, do not release any intent to kill unless the host does."

Yasha was totally confused. "But I'm releasing it when I just put on Henge. I'm not trying to attack anyone, I'm not angry with anyone."

"Perhaps you misunderstand," Shiho explained calmly, "If you are slightly, even subconsciously, angry at someone, your insects will release all of that unchecked."

"You do seem to wear a mask, if you don't mind my saying, Yasha-kun," Shino added calmly. "And while that is not necessarily a bad thing, your insects don't care that you are trying to suppress your feelings."

Yasha frowned. "So… if I'm just the tiniest, titchiest, smallest bit angry at someone…?"

"Your insects will magnify that," Shino confirmed.

"Damnit. Kami damn it," Yasha swore under his breath, kicking at the ground. "So someone can bump into me on the street and I'll be leaking intent to kill them?"

Shiho spoke up, expression unreadable as normal. "Only if someone bumping into you on the street makes you murderously angry."

Yasha raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't think it would."

The adult shrugged, a slight roll of the shoulders. "Neither do I, but I can't speak for you. Some people are ready to murder more easily than others. Fear and anger are the emotions you have to look for."

"You don't say," Yasha said thoughtfully. "Well, any idea on how to change that?"

"Just don't be so angry," Shino said brightly – well, as brightly as an Aburame could. "The less you're inwardly angry at people, the less your anger can be magnified. Forgive people, let things go, don't get worked up over the past."

"The past, huh." Yasha hummed, as some flashbacks tore through him. "I think I understand what you two are getting at, I have some ideas now."

"It was a pleasure."

Yasha bowed again. "Thanks for your service, Shino-kun, Aburame-san. Let me know if you two need anything."

Shiho bowed back slightly. "Your offer is noted. Come again whenever you need, Yasha-kun."

Yasha turned and went back out, a dark look on his face.

Shiho spoke once he had turned the corner and gone out of earshot. "Maybe the hives are only disturbed because of his internalised anger. If he amends it, it will benefit the Aburame too."

Shino turned back to him. "Perhaps, but they also mentioned a lot about hunger."

"His insects' small size must cause his entire chakra intent to change," Shiho theorised. "It becomes more apparent to me why having the kikaichu instead is more beneficial."

Shino frowned slightly. "I question that. Why? With killer intent as strong as his, most potential opponents would be too intimidated to attack."

Shiho didn't take offense at his son disagreeing with his more experienced father, merely countering his point. "It's clearly hard to control. Perhaps it's his personality, though."

Shino nodded shortly. "He is a hard to read character in the best of times."

A small pause passed, before the adult turned back to the hive. "Let's resume what I was telling you here."

* * *

"Let it go, let it roll right off your shoulders; don't you know, the hardest part is over…" Naoki sang, "Let it in, let your clarity define you; in the end, we will only just remember how it feels."

Yasha's clone gave her a dull look. "How what feels?"

"Shut up, it's a song," Naoki told him off, then turned back to her imaginary audience. "Let it slide, let your troubles fall behind you; let it shine, until you feel it all around you…"

Yasha gazed off into the distance as she sang on. "…and I don't mind, if it's me you need to turn to, we'll get by; it's the heart that really matters in the end."

Keito snored quietly a few metres behind him, grateful for the chance to sleep. Naoki had wanted to sing, so Yasha left her to it – she wasn't loud enough to wake up a tired eight-year-old. "Our lives are made in these small hours, these little wonders, these twists and turns of fate…"

There was something nostalgic about her voice. Was she remembering a song her parents sang? Yasha heaved a sigh. He'd never had parents to sing to him. What songs would they have sung?

"Time falls away, but these small hours, these small hours, still remain."

Would they have sung often?

Naoki started humming and swaying back and forward, the melody to the song. "All of my regrets, will wash away somehow… but I cannot forget, the way I feel right now." She gazed up at the clouds and sighed, speaking so quietly Yasha barely heard it. "I miss them."

_'You and me both,'_ Yasha thought sombrely, gazing up at the clouds with her. "Who wrote that song?"

"Hmm…" Naoki said distantly, "I forget."

"Where'd you hear it?"

"A film," she said, still distant. Then her focus came back. "I forget which."

Oddly, the last part sounded like a lie, but Yasha ignored the instinct – it didn't really matter if she knew what film it was from. He couldn't afford a film, or a TV to watch it on.

His bank account was getting low. He needed more D-Ranks, badly.

Come to think of it, when was the last time he had actually checked his bank balance?

Yasha hadn't trusted his bank with much of his sponsor's cash, since he distrusted the village that called him and Naruto monsters as easy as breathing, but it was worth it as apparently his bank would handle translating his paychecks to "real money". If they were charging monster tax or something, he ought to find out.

He wondered if he should attempt to clone, with his original still wandering around.

Best not – he hadn't attempted multi-clone yet. In fact he was dubious about single clones a few days ago. He'd rather not disturb the original unnecessarily and risk vomiting with it.

The brunette glanced at Keito, and decided to leave him be. Plenty of time to check the bank. Might as well leave it for the original after the clone technique released.

In the meantime, he just had to watch the other kids. Yasha did a quick headcount, and nodded to himself.

At least he didn't have Ino breathing down his neck. That made a pleasant change.

* * *

"So now my insects are apparently revealing little pieces of crap," Yasha growled to himself, stalking up the side of the Hokage mountain. "And basically if I drop some toast in the morning I can't use any ninjutsu forever."

He was understandably pissed off at the revelation.

Which didn't really help matters, since he wasn't meant to be internally angry.

But apparently, as soon as he moved his insects by moving his chakra, if he had the slightest amount of anger or fear underlying what he was thinking, they'd turn that tiny amount into a _huge _amount of KI. If only there was someone who he could learn from… but to be honest, the line between "suppressing emotions" and "controlling emotions" was blurry at best.

Compare the Hyuuga with the Aburame. One controlled them out of apparent necessity, the other out of some misplaced sense of nobility. Then there was Nara, Yamanaka – both hid their emotions, both because they were too knowledgeable to give information away.

But if he went to any of those for help with his emotions, he would literally be giving away how he worked. He'd be giving away the fact his mental state was angry constantly.

He'd rather not.

What was his options?

One, go to a Yamanaka and let them give him advice, at the cost of probably having to go through very revealing therapy.

Two, attempt to become happy-go-lucky like Naruto.

Three, suppress his apparent anger to an even further extent.

Four, ignore the issue, and just get used to not being able to fight… in most circumstances.

…Okay, for starters, there was no way he would go to a Yamanaka. His past was not something he wanted to raise with anyone, even for the sake of therapy.

If he was going to share, it'd be with someone he genuinely would _not_ part from at the cost of his life. But that wasn't going to happen any time soon, so that option was pointless to pick.

On the plus side, his KI would be massive if he left it as is. If he released serious KI when bored, when he was literally _fuming_, he'd scare the enemy's pants off.

A dark grin crossed his face imagining it, but it soon vanished. The KI would be strong if he was fuming anyway; holding onto constant anger wouldn't help that.

Reaching the top of the monument, he flopped down on the Fourth Hokage's head, gazing out over Konoha.

He couldn't suppress his anger further – he hadn't even _detected_ his anger, which could only mean it was things he didn't like people for – inactive anger. For example, Konoha's treatment of Naruto made him angry towards them.

Let that go? But it was totally correct and valid, _expected_ even, to have anger about something like that. What was he meant to do, be all smiles and glitter and rainbows around child abusers? Brush past it? Dismiss it until Naruto eventually became strong enough for them to change their tune?

Bullshit. A person should be treated correctly at all ages, regardless of accomplishments. There was a certain level of human decency everyone deserved, especially children.

It was what stopped Yasha from tearing through every civilian who worked at the orphanage. That, and he hadn't the time to investigate anyone for their direct involvement.

That and Naruto and the eight Uchiha brats wouldn't have a fun life if he was gone.

Yasha sighed wearily, scratching his forehead. He couldn't ignore the problem, it'd cripple his performance on the field far too much.

He couldn't get much help from strangers without revealing how screwed up he was, and he'd _seriously_ rather not.

And he barely knew what to do with his emotions otherwise. He could deal with getting rid of conscious emotions, hiding something that angered him, but getting rid of _background_ anger?

How would you even start with that?

Forgive them?

Forgive them for being abusive?

The hell?

Why don't they just _stop?_

Why don't they just _think?_

Yasha dragged his hand down his face, knowing but _hating_ what he had to do.

He had to decide they were still good people. Confused people, but good people just like everyone else.

He gritted his teeth, furious at the fact he even _had_ to.

_'Why?'_ his analytical brain asked, plainly. _'Why is this so hard for you? Why do you want the option of hating them?'_

"BECAUSE THEY'RE FUCKING EVIL SHITHEADS!" he yelled.

The world seemed to reel from his shout, the ambient sounds fading away. He glared, full force at the scumbag village below him. Simultaneously a cheerful, happy village, Naruto's beloved home… and the biggest piece of shit in existence.

As his hearing came back to normal, he idly wondered how many people actually heard that. How many Jounin just turned and looked up at him on the Hokage monument.

He didn't want to forgive them, because he wanted them to pay.

Not necessarily _him_ making them pay. No, it could be anyone doling out the punishment, he wasn't concerned about that.

But you can't be cruel without consequences.

Yasha could justify every single time he had threatened or hurt people. There was good reason, _every time_, because he knew what it was like to be hurt without good reason.

These scumbags had to apologise, or they had to pay. They couldn't just change their tune and shift their morals in response to the situation.

Morality was about ironclad rules, lines you would never cross, things you would never do. As a manipulator Yasha knew this all too well. And he _hated_ the people who didn't have lines, who bent their own rules, who had situational ethics – say they would never steal then change their tune once they're starving. Just _say_ you'll only steal if you're starving. Tell the fucking truth.

Someone who would decide to treat a kid like shit on an assumption they were a monster, then treat them nicely on an assumption they might use Hokage powers to slap some punishment on them, no. Fuck no.

If you have morals, stick to them like they're worth shit.

Accept the consequences of your actions.

And don't mess with _kids_.

Yasha glared out over the village, and breathed deeply. A minute later, the same internal voice piped up. _'What are the alternatives to forgiving them?'_

Well, he wasn't going to attack them. He wanted harm on Konoha… but yet, that wasn't true either. His glare softened.

If Konoha came to harm, even if all the people he cared about were outside… the Uchiha kids would be left homeless, and Naruto would be devastated. With Konoha gone the whole Land of Fire would be invaded. Yasha couldn't head to another shinobi village and there was no way they'd be safe out in the wild or in some civilian Fire city.

Realistically, even if all his friends were S-Rank, he'd prefer they were here, surrounded by allies, than the whole village destroyed. Sure, the village deserved it… well, majority maybe. But that meant all the people that didn't would suffer too.

Summed up, he didn't _really_ want the village to come to harm. Too many innocents would suffer, and that'd be a hypocritical thing to cause. He'd be doing the exact thing he didn't approve of – hurting people without really knowing if they were responsible… without really having a reason.

So why be so adamant about hating them? He'd be crippling his own progress and ultimately that rage could _never_ be fulfilled. Even if he got away with it there'd be no way Naruto would be happy with what happened.

Hell, Naruto was capable of fighting back when scumbags showed up, but _chose_ not to. Didn't that sum up his feelings on the matter?

His watch beeped, and he sighed, glaring at it wearily. Perfect timing.

He had to let this go. If he couldn't let it go, every _bit_ of this, he couldn't progress.

And while he was at it, those flashbacks were a problem. He wasn't even sure why – he'd dealt with the people involved. They were dead and gone.

Yasha could think about the event easily, recall every detail. He could recall what happened to him, and what he did back. He could recall the moment he snapped – after that was a bloody blur, but he could recall it and afterwards.

He didn't feel anything, bar disgust at the people involved, a deep, nauseating disgust. But he wasn't scared by it.

Was he angry?

…Yes, that it happened, but there was no one alive to be angry at, and he wasn't going to Edo Tensei anyone so he could re-kill them. Literally _no_ desire to do that, at all.

So… what was needed with his past?

Letting go, huh?

"Ironic." Yasha sat up, readying himself, and a few seconds later his clone released and he bent over double, retching and coughing as his insects bounced around in his system, churning up his chakra.

Thankfully, no vomit. He, or his swarms, were getting used to it.

A minute later, the nausea had faded. He sighed. "Let it go."

Naoki's song she had sung to his clone immediately played through his head, and he smirked, then his smile slipped off his face as her sad statement. "'The heart that really matters in the end', huh?"

What even _was_ his heart? Yasha sighed again, letting his exhaustion drain out, and imagining it pooling on the ground below him.

Well… he was doing right by the Uchiha kids and Naruto. That part of his heart was fine.

The fact he could literally walk to a building and kill eight children, all but unnoticed by everyone, was kind of scary. Hell, he even stored a kunai there.

They were all too young to fight back. Keito was exhausted most of the time.

"Stop wondering about whether you can kill them; yes, you can, and you'd get away with it," Yasha muttered tiredly. "Let's move on."

And that kind of summed up his heart. Taking care of them while simultaneously wondering about whether he could kill them. For no damn reason!

That was just what his mind tossed up.

He ran his hand down his face again, silently noting he was running out of ways to express how wearied he was with his own bullshit.

There was something educational about being vague, and not thinking linearly – it didn't bias you into some way of thinking and get you stuck in that rut. Look at Hyuuga with their nobility rut, Jiraiya with his perversion rut…

But on the other hand… this sort of thinking where just _anything_ was free game just was so jarring. Yasha idly wondered if anyone else had that problem with their brain coming up with totally outlandish thoughts.

Then again, how many had heard of what the future would hold? That time travel was possible, and the result of a bloodline?

Who knew their village would be invaded? Who had to fight Itachi on the massacre night? While rescuing kids?

All of that was pretty outlandish.

Curiosity at just how far random thoughts could go lead to allowing anything… did he regret that?

…He was now thinking about feelings about his thoughts.

"Stop wasting time," he muttered to himself, staring out over Konoha.

He had to let go… but how? He'd spoken to Naruto and the kid didn't exactly talk him into loving Konoha, despite Naruto's passion.

Maybe simply because it was Naruto, the one wronged, the love of Konoha meant nothing.

Yasha was reminded of when he was in the Hokage's office and confronted the Kage about Naruto's treatment. The Kage basically blamed politics: too much favouritism of the Kyuubi brat and the Hokage would upset the civilians. But the Kage regretted that his poor treatment happened – it was obvious, even in the original timeline. That regret wasn't a lie.

Yasha couldn't remain an enemy of Konoha in general while working as their protector. It made no sense.

He simultaneously wanted Konoha destroyed and protected. No wonder there was cognitive dissonance, when his basic desires were so conflicted.

(How many people his age even knew that term?)

Yasha had to drop his hatred of Konoha – either that, or abandon Konoha and the people in it he cared about.

He frowned at his sheer _unwillingness_ to. "If I find it this hard to let go of hatred, I can see why Sasuke had such a problem."

Problem isn't he was hostile to Konoha, but that Konoha was hostile back, to him and Naruto both. There'd be ample opportunities for him to get angry with them again and be back at square one.

What could solve that?

He couldn't leave Konoha, their opinion wouldn't improve. Moving to the outskirts might make things better – less exposure – but it might make things worse, too, as villagers that _did_ want a piece of him would think they'd get away with it due to that same less exposure.

It was possible that if he got his KI under control he could use Henge regularly to move around. People wouldn't pick up on that – they'd literally have to watch his house and assume he wasn't some friend or classmate of the two. Unlikely at best.

After all, civilians didn't really know how chakra worked, so they wouldn't know of Henge. If he was wearing one he'd be seen by civilians as a different person.

But for that to work, Yasha had to _totally_ lose the killing intent. Or at least drop it to barely discernable levels. Civilians weren't used to KI in any sort of level, so it had to even be mild for them, which didn't leave much margin.

Maybe he wouldn't even need the Henge after a while once people realised their fear of him was gone. It may well be just over-spilling KI that made them hate him in the first place.

His gaze narrowed as he looked over the peaceful village as he came to a conclusion. "Konoha, I don't forgive you. But I expect you'll make up for it, and you'll feel every bit of remorse that is due you."

He sighed and felt a bit lighter. He embraced the feeling, trying to spread it.

No one but sociopaths had no remorse when they did something wrong. They always had justification, and they always felt remorse even if their ego prevented them admitting it. Yasha made the same mistakes. He had done something wrong before. Not as bad as this, but something he thought was right and was actually all sorts of wrong.

People's conscience forbade them from doing something morally wrong without justification. And even if they ploughed past their conscience in the heat of the moment, they regretted it. Their conscience just wore away at them until their ego came up with some sort of justification to let them forgive themselves – even if it was justification like "it's not a big deal", "it was a white lie", "she overreacted", "just a fling, meant nothing".

Yasha's thoughts turned back to Ino. Truth be told, he was manipulating her feelings for him. Justified, yes, eight kids' lives depended on it – but frankly it was still wrong.

If Ino refused to forgive him once the kids were grown up and the truth could be out, how would he feel? He'd basically have a permanent enemy, a constant souring on his life – someone he had to avoid every time he went in the street or get treated with accusing glares.

She'd sour the whole of the Yamanaka against him, and basically anyone else who she spoke to about it. Forget that.

It was unfair to expect Ino to forgive him when he couldn't forgive a whole group – most of which were uninvolved or completely clueless about the factors about Naruto.

A clueless civilian, who had no idea how chakra even worked, how reliable the seal was – add the factor of the five stages of grief. Anger, right in there.

Every time a civilian saw Naruto, they were reminded what was in him, or what he was itself… and what the Kyuubi did to them.

He sighed, and tried his best to understand them, forgive them.

People lost whole families, their homes, their livelihood. While meanwhile a blond kid was grinning everywhere, seeming to mock them with his happiness. Probably his resemblance to the favourite blond Hokage made it even worse.

Just… let… go.

Five minutes later, with a sigh, he stood up. He felt both lighter and yet exhausted. Almost wobbling, he stood back up and went down the steps, heading back home.

The entire journey was a blur, and he just got home, wandered straight to his bedroom soundlessly, and faceplanted onto the bed, drifting to sleep in seconds.

* * *

"Darn it, I can't find him anywhere, dattebayo!" Naruto cursed. His clones had poured everywhere, donning a varying Henge each so they wouldn't be interrupted.

Now that he recalled, there were a lot of jounin giving him wary looks. It took Naruto only about half an hour to comb the whole village; in his eagerness he'd pumped out hundreds of clones and all that was left was to form a line and cross the village, and yell to the original if they spotted an ANBU.

(Naruto still hadn't caught on that he received memories from his clones, so they called to each other when they found an ANBU.)

He had spotted 3 ANBU total. But by the time the original got there to talk with them, there was no trace of them. The clones just couldn't keep track of them. All it took was one flickering technique and they were gone.

"I might need to change tactics," the blond considered. "I can't keep track of them, so I need to find their base instead. But how would I do that?"

Firstly, it wouldn't be a public building. ANBU liked vanishing, so they must hide somewhere they could vanish. In all his visits to the Hokage tower, he'd never seen them, but because the Hokage commanded them directly, their base must be nearby so they could get to him quickly.

All his clones dispelled, Naruto started off to the Hokage tower, still wearing a Henge. Once he was on top, he gazed around, looking for any building that was hidden.

Nothing. But hang on… the Hokage tower was pretty close to the forest. If you wanted to hide a building, there was no better place than a forest.

Once again Naruto formed a line of clones, but instead of the streets they all went to the treeline and trawled through the forest, quietly.

Or as quietly as someone with a Jinchūriki level of chakra could. It didn't take five seconds before he was confronted by an ANBU.

"Uzumaki-san, what are you doing here?" she asked, obviously a female despite her mask's seals obscuring her real voice.

"I'm looking for someone, dattebayo!" He grinned at her.

"There's no one in the forest." She waved that away easily, being it was her job to scan for people hiding in the forest.

An ANBU actually talking to him. Of course, an ANBU would hide where other ANBU were. "No, I mean I'm looking for an ANBU."

"You're looking for ANBU?" she repeated confusedly.

"Yeah, a certain one. He has a black mask."

Her eyes widened in shock. "Yūrei? What do you want with him?"

So that was his name. Ghost. Naruto's grin stretched wider. That was an _awesome_ codename. "I want him to train me, dattebayo!"

The ANBU held a hand to her temple, trying to avoid sensory overload from all the chakra round her as she tuned into his chakra intent. "How do you even know about him?"

"He told me about Yasha being in hospital a while ago, and took me there."

According to her chakra sensing, he wasn't lying, thankfully. Her pounding heart slowed a little. She was seconds away from taking him to the Hokage to psychoanalyse for Yūrei's mental handiwork.

Nothing nefarious going on, just a genin trying to get stronger. Of course, he wouldn't know that Yūrei betrayed them and ran from the village, and she didn't want to give off the impression ANBU couldn't be trusted.

Deflect then. "Don't you have a jounin-sensei for that?"

Naruto scowled. "Yeah, but Kaka-sensei is too lazy to train me."

That sounded like Hound, alright. Odd to think he was a by-the-books guy a few years back. She held back a snort.

Shinobi getting poor training wasn't to be tolerated though.

She smirked at him. "Well, we can't have that. I'll have a talk with him."

Turning quickly to the side, she tapped the transmit button on her earpiece. "Base, there's a boy looking for Hound. Do I have the okay for escorting?"

A confirmation came through quickly. "Yes, _please_. He's making my sensory go haywire."

She held back another snort and turned back to the eager-looking blond. "If you dispel all your clones, I'll take you to Kakashi and have a talk with him."

"Cool!" He did just that and she felt the pressure in her head lessen as large power sources all around her morphed into just one giant one. "Let's go!"

"Hold on, let me find him." She flickered away into the village, out of his clouding chakra, and sensed. There he was. At home, actually. Chakra suppressed to jounin levels like normal.

Sensors have an unwritten agreement to not spill the location of other people's private affairs, so she wouldn't take the kid all the way there. She flickered back and grabbed the Uzumaki, wrapping her chakra around him and body-flickering.

Halfway there she paused on a roof to let him recover. He was all sorts of dizzy, and she chortled quietly, before a thought hit her. "Actually, if you see that Yūrei guy, do let me know. He's not turned in his last few mission reports."

"Are you his captain?" Naruto asked eagerly.

She scoffed. "I wish." She was nowhere near his level; she had two years under her belt and he had over ten, not to mention doujutsu, fuuinjutsu… ugh, the list went on. "I'd have to work for years to get to his level."

Naruto grinned at her. "Just use shadow clones! Then you can do two things at once!"

She blinked at him, as something in her gut fell like a rock. She flickered away to whack her head against a wall and groan.

She could be researching something and relaxing in bed at the same time. Why hadn't she thought to use clones outside of sparring and combat? It took a genin who said it in such an _obvious_ way for her to consider the use of clones outside training.

She crushed her shame and flickered back, voice normalised. "Thanks for the tip."

"Uh… no problem," Naruto replied hesitantly. To his eye, she was gone and back in half a second, like she flickered invisible and back. "Um, what does that Yūrei guy look like without his mask?"

"No one knows," she replied, taking out a shuriken and flinging it off into the sky at just the right angle, chakra buzzing around one of the tips. "No one's seen him out of uniform."

The wind blew it around the corner, flying right through Kakashi's open window, the sharpened tip embedding in the floor. The jounin jolted.

In seconds a Kakashi clone was standing by the two, the original on another roof entirely.

"Jackal," Kakashi greeted in surprise. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

She pushed Naruto forward. "One of your kids needs more training."

Naruto crossed his arms, scowling at Jackal. She could have made it sound like he wasn't weak.

Kakashi's eye flickered over Naruto, then returned back to Jackal. "I didn't take you for a babysitter."

"He needs serious work on chakra suppression, for one," she deflected, not rising to the bait. "And he can't even handle a body flicker."

"Hey, I…" Naruto's protest was cut off as Jackal flipped through six seals in a heartbeat, muting the whole area. She didn't want this convo dragging out.

Naruto stopped trying to speak, so she released the technique. "Seriously, Kakashi, I know it's day one, but they shouldn't be wandering around in forests looking for ANBU to train them."

Kakashi frowned, finally catching on as to why she was involved. His gaze shifted back to the blond genin. "Naruto-kun, a bit overly eager aren't we?"

Jackal vanished in a cloud of leaves. Now that Kakashi finally acknowledged the problem, she didn't have to deal with being next to a fog of chakra any longer. Cute kid, but she'd get a headache in half an hour from being so close to that much unrestrained chakra.

"I want to be stronger. I want to know cooler techniques," Naruto said flatly, arms still folded.

Kakashi sighed, holding his forehead. "Naruto-kun, you'll _get_ there. Be patient. Once I'm sure you guys are working together and you all are familiar with your D-Rank missions, I'll change it up. By then I'll have a stronger grasp on your capabilities anyway."

Naruto scowled. "Why not just teach Sasuke and Yasha Kage Bunshin? Then you can teach us while our clones do the D-Ranks."

Kakashi blinked. He wasn't expecting Naruto to try and solve the problem, just to demand training with even more vigour. Was that one of Yasha's influences? To analyse things?

But his solution was a dud anyway. "No, Naruto. Sasuke wouldn't use your techniques. And for Yasha, with his bloodline, it's just dangerous to give him that."

Dangerous as in, Yasha would be far harder to monitor and the Hokage would have Kakashi's head.

"Imagine how confused the swarms in his body would get with their host being divided. And anyway both of them have far less chakra than you."

The silver-haired jounin analysed Naruto's uncertain look and delivered the finisher. "And besides, do you really want Sasuke knowing the _only_ technique you have that he doesn't?"

Naruto shook his head vigorously, arms uncrossing. "Fine," he agreed moodily. "But I really want training."

"Don't grouch about it. Be patient." Kakashi dispelled, and the original blinked, processing the memories – the original could already hear and see the convo anyway, as relying on the memory processing to be fast was a rookie mistake.

The original hummed in thought, body-flickering back into his home.

Naruto scowled, kicking the roof he was on. "But I want training _now_, dattebayo!"

His energy was burning in him like normal, pushing him, urging him to move and drain it off. He looked around, but Kakashi had gone. Kakashi wasn't going to help. In fact, he'd left him on a roof without a way down. Probably his idea of a joke.

Naruto cursed, kicking the roof harder. He wasn't going to give up! He needed serious training. It had only been a day and he already knew he was far behind the other two boys. Kakashi didn't seem to understand that gap.

Fine. He'd just have to get help outside of Kakashi.

Naruto slid to the edge of the roof, dangling his legs off and kicking idly. He could look for Yūrei again, but if he went back to the forest, he'd just get in Jackal's way again, she'd bring him back to Kakashi or the Hokage, and they'd tell him off for being impatient.

He knew where ANBU base was now, but that didn't help him; Yūrei wasn't even there according to Jackal.

But if he wasn't there… he must be around town. Yūrei seemed like he wasn't going to do what you expected, if he was ignoring reports and stuff, but he was a better ANBU than Jackal, according to her.

Sooo…. if he liked being hidden, and he wasn't at the ANBU base, maybe there was a building hidden elsewhere; Yūrei's home. Naruto had already checked for ANBU around Konoha, and he knew the few ANBU he saw weren't the black-mask guy.

Naruto racked his brains. It would be near the ANBU base, probably, since Yūrei was a lazy ANBU, and wouldn't want to travel far to get to base, so… maybe it was invisible?

He grinned at the idea, but dismissed it. Nah. The only thing that would hide something like a home was a seal, and that would use a lot of chakra. If his home was revealed every time he went on missions because he wasn't around to power the invisibility seal…

Maybe it was buried?

…Maybe. But would someone who was lazy go to the effort of _digging_ his own home? No, it was probably just hidden somewhere.

Not in the trees on _that_ side of the village – that was too close to ANBU. "So…" Naruto said aloud, his gaze turning to the trees on the other side of the compass. "How about there?"

* * *

"That's probably the most tense meal I've had in a while." Yūrei grinned as he put the money down.

The other two looked at him – Itachi sourly, Kisame wearily.

Not a single one of them had lowered their guard for an instant in that restaurant. Yūrei had no apparent motive to attack them, but it was just stupid to lower your guard around someone with a rank that high, even being S-Rank yourself.

Itachi made a mental note that crow clones were probably the thing to be using from now on. It used a lot of chakra, but it would allow him to come close to Yūrei without their talks turning into something massively tense. Yūrei may well seem relaxed all the time, but he was constantly alert.

Activated Sharingan gave a person a safety margin to respond even from completely non-telegraphed movement, so there was reason to relax – all the more so if Yūrei was indeed a shadow clone. Itachi, however, simply couldn't retain inner peace around someone who had murdered Shisui. Unlike Yūrei, he cared about people dying, and he had feelings for the people who died.

Although Yūrei's enigmatic way of talking about Shisui was making Itachi confused, it didn't do anything to make him relax. Yūrei seemed to disassociate their death with his previous memories of them – Itachi wasn't sure how, but it didn't seem healthy.

Kisame was fine in Itachi's book – at least as fine as an S-Rank missing-nin criminal could be. He didn't care about Yūrei's crap, and was very matter-of-fact about things. There was a sinister side to him, an obvious battle fever and bloodlust, but Itachi expected that from every missing-nin, particularly the high-level ones.

But Kisame was readable. Very readable. His stance, his no-nonsense attitude… it was easy to see where he was coming from. Yūrei was the complete opposite.

Itachi idly noted he could comfortably settle down for a year in a high-end part of Konoha with Kisame's bounty. He also noted Kisame's chakra level was off the charts – and he meant _off the charts_. That man had more chakra than he'd seen in any person, _ever_. Granted, he had a large build, so larger coils, but the sheer mass of chakra in his system…

Maybe that explained his desire to fight someone. He was itching to most of the meal… if you could call it that. He looked disappointed when both Sharingan-bearers backed down. And with his chakra level, no wonder, he probably had so much chakra it would make him buzz with energy.

As a rule, fight-loving meatheads are easy to out-strategize, but rules tend to be off when it gets to A-Ranks and higher. Best idea with them is treat everyone without any assumptions; they'll play off your assumptions otherwise and use them against you.

All three were still together when their rings buzzed. Itachi mentally cursed as he had to take his focus off Yūrei.

"Thanks to Orochimaru's leaving, I'll be reorganising the teams. We're gathering a new member from inside Iwagakure," their Leader's voice rang clearly. "I need Sasori, Itachi and Kisame for the recruitment. Yūrei, I have a private mission for you."

"Hai, boss," Yūrei replied cheerfully. "I hope it's not anything to do with stealing a ring back from Orochimaru."

The ginger-haired corpse frowned. "It's not. Stay where you are." It did annoy him that Yūrei wasn't intimidated by him, so for all his poking fun at Konan he _did_ see where she was coming from.

"You other three, I'll have you meet on Iwagakure border, to the south. There's an inn called 'the Prancing Pony' just shy of the border. Stay there until you meet with Sasori, who should be with you in two days in the evening. You'll receive further instructions at the time."

"Hai," both other S-Ranks replied clearly, mostly from engrained training. They looked at each other assessingly, knowing there was no point to splitting up for the journey.

Kisame smirked, eyes becoming predatory. "Well, we've already been introduced, so shall we get going?"

"Of course. Don't try anything funny, Kisame-san." Itachi's eyes evolved and he glared down Kisame. It would be pointless to actually hurt him, but for powerful people, power was the only thing worth respect, and no better way to brandish that than a threat.

Kisame's smirk widened. "_Naturally._ We're comrades. Allow me to send those words right back to you."

"You two have fun. I'm going to go do a thing." Yūrei waved as he made his way back through the streets.

The other two gazed after him wordlessly, before their images shimmered and they body-flickered away.

Konan watched from above, paper wings still flapping slowly. Paper didn't weigh much, but chakra-laden paper required a little Wind Release to keep airborne. She didn't want to attract a Sharingan user's attention though, and while it may seem paranoid, someone like Yūrei would probably see her following him and show no visible reaction.

At this point, with him inside a building she'd have to send paper planes to follow Yūrei, but her sensing with individual paper wasn't exactly top notch, and even with civilians she could track their chakra but not actually figure out what they were doing.

With Yūrei, Mr. No Presence, she couldn't even do that. She'd literally have to stick a paper to his clothes to get away with tracking him, and the odds of him not noticing was miniscule.

Plus, this may well be a clone. From what she knew, he sent a clone everywhere. With a lack of chakra presence, for all she knew he had fifty of him walking around this town under Henge. She'd have to check each figure for a chakra signature.

Shadow Clones couldn't hold indefinitely, but half a day was probably doable. Maybe a full day. He was using the technique for years, and he had a doujutsu and seals to tell him of any issues with its performance.

Her sensing was useless against him. Probably against Kisame, too. He had no doujutsu, but his sword could sense chakra, even under Henge the chakra was the same aura per person – Konan as a sensor could tell that. He'd spot her easily if Samehada reacted.

She frowned. She could wait for him, or call it quits – Orochimaru might still be nearby – unlikely, given his opponents, but he did seem the type to attack in subtle, sly ways.

Of course, being Pein had all but invited her to carry on monitoring him, she was free to keep doing just that for as long as she cared. Pein had no fear of Yūrei, firmly believing he was more than capable of taking out anyone who dared go against him. He actually considered himself a god – and to be honest, Konan wasn't sure what she thought about that.

The red-haired boy had died with Yahiko that day. He had gone from someone who had loved peace and avoiding fights into… _that_. There were still traces of his old self, and Konan knew she couldn't force him out of his ways. She definitely couldn't overpower him, but even if she did, she wasn't adept with words. What would her fighting him bring about but more pain to both of them?

A ghost of a smile flickered. True enough, peace had fallen in Ame. The people in Amegakure were subdued by Pein's ever-watchful eye and the mysterious nature of their protectors, but cheerful and most importantly, _at peace_. Pein's way had worked so far.

And she'd be damned if she let him drift in darkness alone. If Nagato ever woke, she'd be there to take his hand.

With a sigh, she broke her technique, the paper fluttering down and reforming on the roof nearby, condensing. With a tingling sensation her real body formed.

Glumly, she slumped, and collapsed her hand onto her chin, vaguely staring into the distance. She couldn't hover around Yūrei like a moth around a lightbulb. She hadn't even done that with Orochimaru, and she hadn't trusted him either.

The difference was, Orochimaru's goals were obvious. It was also apparent what would make him part ways – a rare bloodline to steal from Akatsuki. It was obvious he couldn't touch Pein – not just because Pein was far stronger, but because the Akatsuki rarely met in person. Neither Pein nor Konan trusted him, but they understood him.

For some reason, Pein was content to allow Yūrei the same treatment as Orochimaru, and Konan didn't like it. Yūrei was a blank mask, a ghost like his name, drifting unaffected by the slaughter around him, of comrades and enemies alike.

She considered her options. She couldn't spend all her time watching him – although Pein could certainly handle an attack on Ame, the citizens of Ame wouldn't like to see a person speared through with chakra rods, and Konan's ability to send paper warnings to every corner of Ame at once was invaluable for an evacuation.

She wasn't content to let him roam free, but she couldn't watch him. Her curiosity about his origin could be fed, perhaps. Itachi worked with Yūrei, and there was always further records in Konoha about him that Zetsu could investigate, although he had brought back quite a few copied records already.

However, there was little reason for Itachi to explain any weaknesses of Yūrei. Although Itachi's actions practically defined betrayal, he did them out of a quest for power.

He would gain no power from telling Konan about Yūrei, and possibly even make an enemy out of Yūrei. Regardless of who was stronger, Itachi didn't attack Yūrei just now, so chances are they didn't want to fight – perhaps simply out of Itachi's respect for Pein.

Madara had hinted Yūrei was also there during the Uchiha massacre, but oddly, he was kicked out of Konoha a few days _after_ that night. If he was capable of hiding his involvement in over a hundred murders, then he was worryingly capable of covering his tracks if he did turn on Akatsuki. Given his power level, he could fight on equal grounds with any of the Akatsuki members bar Pein/Konan themselves.

The problem wasn't how strong he was, nor the potential damage he could do. Any Akatsuki member could cause massive damage. It was that you couldn't figure out the motive for his attack, so you could never work out when/if he would do it.

And the last thing you wanted was him not only attacking silently, but getting away with it to do it again.

If an Akatsuki member was caught or killed from this moment forward, with no obvious perpetrator, and Yūrei's location wasn't _confirmed_ to be at least a country away, Konan would suspect him.

But you needed _motive_ to suspect someone. You couldn't suspect them because you knew they were dangerous – by that reckoning most S-Rank would fit the bill. Konan didn't even know Yūrei's motive for joining Akatsuki.

She remembered when they met…

* * *

"…And the situation with Konoha is under investigation by Zetsu," Konan reported, eyes flickering over the paper document.

Pein frowned, and turned his head. "That's strange."

Konan put down the report, her chakra instantly flowing into the familiar Shikigami no Mai [Dance of the Shikigami] pattern, body morphing into paper. "What is it?"

Nagato's Rinnegan narrowed as he focused inwardly. "I have a void in the rain technique. It's not a person with suppressed chakra, it's more like… a person with no chakra."

"No chakra? …Sasori?" Konan suggested.

"He's just outside Kumo [Lightning] right now. I confirmed it just earlier today. Unless he's crossed the lands of Frost, Hot Water, and Fire in a few hours, he's not the one outside."

"So we have a significant attack?"

"They're not attacking. It's a single person figure, and he's not hurrying. Wait… he's sped up."

"Where's he going?"

"Straight towards here. He's incredibly fast. He'll be at the base of this tower in thirty seconds at this rate."

"Better get ready," Konan said grimly, her body exploding into paper.

She reformed in mid-air outside the tower in the next second, gazing down with a hard expression.

It was obvious where he was, even though she couldn't sense him. His speed was so high the rain was actually being pulled after him, like a cyclone. S-Rank speed.

His figure blurred to the side of the tower Pein was in, and she clenched her fists, ready to send explosive notes on him.

In a heartbeat he was running vertically upwards, and she blinked in shock as he ran right over the seals hidden in the walls. His lack of chakra expelling must also mean he didn't trigger the seals.

But that didn't make sense, you would need chakra to stick to the walls.

He went to the floor Nagato was on… and Konan was stunned again as he went right past, higher, ignoring the easy target – in fact not even glancing at the figure visible through the glass window.

Because Nagato hadn't anticipated the building seals to be ineffective, the Six Paths had exited the building on a lower floor. The Paths paused and watched blankly as he climbed to the very peak. Although their expressions betrayed nothing, she knew Nagato was staring in confusion.

While it was true the tower was a giant chakra transmitter for Nagato, at this distance from the Six Paths Nagato would have no issues controlling them without the tower's assistance. If the assailant's game was attacking Nagato, he was going about it completely the wrong way.

Konan and the six ginger-haired Paths watched as he paused, catching his breath, before he produced a large umbrella with a puff of chakra smoke, and put it up, a cup of tea appearing in his other hand.

There was a few seconds of silence as he sipped with the mask tilted upwards, calmly looking over the towers of Ame, rain drizzling. A pulse of wind chakra flared from him, and the water around him bounced off, his clothes becoming dry. Konan would later find out it was a seal.

Pein approached him, slowly, while the other five Paths spread out. He had no idea what to say, even how to _greet_ someone who entered like this.

Fortunately the black-masked figure spoke first. "Lovely view up here."

Pein politely turned to look over the village, shimmering and reflective in the rain, and agreed, half out of obligation and half meaning it. "Indeed."

"My name is Yūrei. I understand you become a member of Akatsuki here."

Pein turned to look at him, tensed. "And why are you interested in that?"

Yūrei's tone was slow and measured, each word carefully picked. "There's… a certain... _powerful_ man I'm trying to track. Akatsuki has the resources to keep me concealed while I look for his trail."

Pein analysed the forehead protector. A leaf symbol, crossed out. "And what of your relationship to Konoha?"

"Missing-nin. I was involved in the Uchiha incident," Yūrei said shortly, taking another sip.

In a heartbeat, both Pein and Konan knew two things: the man was incredibly dangerous, and he was jaded to mass murder.

* * *

With Pein carefully monitoring him over the next couple of days while White Zetsu investigated his records, it turned out Yūrei had told the truth. Madara vouched for him being involved too.

The fact he was hiding in Konoha from that man seemed apparent, as well.

Konan scowled at the village around her. She had to call off watching Yūrei… or at least, get Nagato to tell her when he moved out again. He'd probably tease her again.

Unaware to her, in the street below a Henge'd Yūrei was striding past with a smirk, very aware of where she was. He paused under the building she was in, wondering how to handle her.

Confronting her would just make her more paranoid. He shrugged, leaning against the wall underneath her. Might as well see if she moved on, eavesdrop if she didn't.

Pein's god complex prevented him from being wary of Yūrei like most people. Of course, he wasn't dumb enough to dismiss him entirely, but end result was Konan was doubly paranoid – she felt protective of Pein, and him ignoring the threat meant she paid more attention to make up.

He watched idly as people bustled by. It took the better part of three years to nail a way to combine something Henge-like with no chakra presence, but Yūrei had found it had paid off massively, on missions and everyday life alike.

It was ironic, but the civilians didn't react to him like a threat. The civilians didn't notice the without-presence person – he basically felt of no importance to them, similar to how people tuned out the homeless.

In contrast, shinobi were geared to notice things that were out of the ordinary, so Yūrei had the opposite effect – by seeming unimportant to watch, he became extremely important.

No shinobi in this town though, it was civilians only. If there was a shinobi, chances are they wouldn't recognise him – and if they did it'd be from a Bingo Book and they'd scurry away from Mr. Flee-On-Sight at a detectable high speed.

Yūrei was a sensor – with quite a distance and sensitivity on his ability. It required focus and stillness, though, unlike some who could just sense on the go. His scroll to pull names from chakra signatures used methods only Zack could make available to him now.

Mind-reading the target was a dubious method – it was a fine art that required years to do using your own mind. Using literally a blank slate to access… ridiculously difficult. It would take so many years to make the seal (shadow clone years that is) Yūrei hadn't even attempted it.

The other option was a massive grid of chakra signatures, each with a corresponding name, and a seal to test all of them.

A person's chakra had a certain size and general intent – you could rather reliably determine the person from those two characteristics. Of course, chakra intent was changed in moments of high emotion, and people could always get stronger or weaker, or hide/reveal more of their chakra size, so it wasn't a _perfect_ system, but it was reliable enough. Rather than "is size equal" mechanic, you just allowed a margin of error.

Where it worked _perfectly_ was detecting White Zetsu spores. Those things stayed the same constantly. And with shinobi, once you get to higher ranks, they basically went through the whole day with the same state of mind – alert yet relaxed, prepared but non-expectant, that sort of thing, so their intent was consistent.

Using the combination of these methods – using a seal to read off nearby chakra sizes/intents and display them namelessly, manually re-coding the seal with the names… eventually you had a fairly robust detection method. All you had to do is activate the seal while standing by someone, and you had their chakra size/intent, but no name to identify. So you just added their name alongside the recorded size/intent, to the seal's detection list, and next time the seal detected them you'd have a name too.

Rinse and repeat.

Itachi seemed stunned by the scroll Yūrei had shown him (although, you had to read between the lines – spending those years in the Uchiha compound had paid off), but the name list wasn't the result of just throwing detection into the wild. It required you to manually record a name for each chakra signature. It wasn't a perfect detection either – if someone was normally calm and they became angry, the detection would fail.

Orochimaru's name wouldn't have shown up on the list anyway, even if he had been nearby. Yūrei's sample from him was from years and years ago, and he would have been suppressing his signature. He might have even body-hopped since then. However, there'd be an ominous unknown signature in the list, so he'd be detectable anyway.

The scroll always ended with a few false positives Yūrei hadn't managed to eke out, too.

So it wasn't really _that_ impressive; raw sensing ability was more accurate. Yūrei's gaze shifted to the forest on the outskirts.

* * *

The real Yūrei sighed, kicking back on a branch. The clone that had waltzed into Grass to buy a room at an inn had just re-cloned and dispelled, sending him the usual pulse of memories.

Konan was still hovering over the town, barely visible even to his Mangekyō. He took a moment to admire her persistence – she must be pretty astute to watch his clone at such a large distance.

His clone had also made another clone to observe Konan closer up.

A spot on the left shoulder-bone buzzed on his chest, and he scratched absently, before realising it was a seal going off. An uncommon seal he'd rarely felt activating before.

He frowned, hopping off the branch and cracking his back into shape. He should only have… three? Yes, three summoning seals set up in various places. That one was for… his home back in Konoha.

The Black-Mask opened his Akatsuki gown, hand going into his chest and exposing the myriad of seals. He had about ten seconds to decide before the capacitor at the other location filled to its limit and emptied into the Summon.

His finger hovered over the sub-seal switch which would cancel the technique.

No, whoever was setting it off, they had quite a mass of chakra, the capacitor was filling up far faster than he expected. His expected ten seconds became a single second and he sighed, donning the mask, evolving his Sharingan to Mangekyō state, hands set into Henge.

It was the one weakness of Summon seals: they always pulled the original person, clones ignored. If someone set off one of his Summons, his real body would be sent in response. Someone with this level of chakra and willingly flooding it to his Summon could only be a Sannin or Kage. He was probably heading into a full-out battle now.

With a final pull, his body vanished into smoke.

* * *

"What is this?" Naruto yelped, trying to move with several clones pulling him. His foot was stuck to the ground, but nothing was sticking him to it. He hit his shoe frantically, trying to dislodge it, but it didn't seem to work.

When his foot got stuck, he had touched the ground to see if it was sticky, and although it just felt like wet dirt, his fingers became locked to it as well. The clones around him were pulling him, but they weren't making any difference.

Suddenly, red writing was glowing and rotating around him, and he felt himself draining of energy. Before he could react, there was a large cloud of smoke in front of him.

A black-mask ANBU looked down at him, his eyes shifting back to the red dots Naruto had seen before. Naruto felt weirdly light-headed for a second as he looked into the eyes. When he had looked around, all of his clones had dispelled. He didn't remember dispelling them.

"Well, if it isn't you, Uzumaki-san," the ANBU said neutrally.

Naruto felt that same awe. Yūrei was looking down at him with what seemed like amusement, his stance relaxing. "Can you let me out of this?"

"That's a movement locking barrier, how are you still able to tal…" Yūrei muttered, eyes flickering over the ground. "Ah, crap, the denomination is wrong." He kicked the ground distastefully, and Naruto stumbled forward, suddenly broken out of the invisible hold.

It was just like that time he met Yūrei on the night Yasha was hurt. Instant paralysis.

"And what can I do for you, Uzumaki-san?"

Naruto hesitated briefly under the intense stare. "I want you to train me, dattebayo!" He beamed.

Yūrei's eyes flickered with some emotion, and he looked him up and down. "Hmm," he hummed noncommittally.

He was going to say no, wasn't he? "Aww, come on!" Naruto pleaded, using his best puppy eyes.

Yūrei shrugged. "What will you do for me if I train you?"

Naruto stopped short. "Um… do for you?" Well, only fair. He racked his brains. "I could do your reports for you?"

"My reports?" Ghost repeated, a small smile forming.

"The reports that um… Jackal wanted you handing in!"

"Jackal?" Yūrei was a little lost.

"She said you had reports you had to hand in and to tell her if I see you," Naruto explained.

The blond suddenly realised he could threaten Yūrei with telling Jackal where Yūrei was. He hid his smirk and waited to see how the ANBU responded.

"I don't actually work for ANBU anymore." Yūrei gestured down at his red cloud-covered cloaks. "I'm undercover at a criminal organisation."

Naruto recoiled. "Wait, you're… That's so cool, dattebayo!"

Yūrei grinned. "I was actually a good distance away, but you activated my seal and summoned me here. That's why you were stuck. It's part of my home defences."

Naruto was getting more and more excited with each thing he said. "That's so _cooool!"_

"Indeed," Yūrei drawled, smiling at him. It'd been a while since he had to work with kids. Their unrestrained emotions were always entertaining.

They were too immature to be guarded. It was like a breath of fresh air compared to S-Ranks and ANBU he'd been dealing with for… years now. Wow, how did time fly.

The Black-Mask gestured downwards. "Unfortunately, this seal will expire in a few minutes, and I'll be pulled back to where I was. I can work around it, though."

"Oh, wait, where were you?" Naruto asked curiously, fidgeting. "I didn't… pick a bad time?"

Yūrei shrugged again. "You didn't pick any time, you couldn't have known any context." Naruto blinked at him. "But no, it's fine. No one was watching me, they won't notice even if I'm gone a few hours."

Naruto bounced on his feet excitedly. "So what are you doing? Who are you watching?"

"It's not a specific _person_, per se," Yūrei corrected, "I'm watching the whole group, seeing what they're doing. The organisation is called the Akatsuki."

"Daybreak, huh…"

The ex-ANBU smiled. "It doesn't sound threatening, but every person there is an S-Rank missing-nin."

"S-Rank?" Naruto repeated.

"It's like three A-Ranks put together in one person," Yūrei dumbed down.

"That's pretty bad… I guess?" It sounded powerful but Naruto had no experience with anyone A-Rank to compare with. Apart from… He brightened. "Hey, hey, what's Kakashi's rank?"

Yūrei blinked. "Oh, Kakashi is an S-Rank, I think." Yūrei trawled his memory. "Yeah, he was an S-Rank a few years ago. I think he's out of practice though."

"He's out of practice?" Naruto said in shock, remembering the ease Kakashi defeated all his hordes of clones.

Yūrei nodded. "Quite, although it's not my place to say why." Kakashi wasn't the same after the Fourth died.

And here was the Fourth's offspring, right in front of him. In literally a second, Yūrei could assassinate a Jinchūriki, or force him into genjutsu submission, or possibly release the Kyuubi.

It was still kind of odd how something so powerful could be in a container so blithely unaware. Konoha could be half destroyed by a single decision Yūrei made now, and worst of it was, Naruto would have made it possible by his own actions. If the genin had never come this direction and triggered the Summon trap, Yūrei would never have even considered doing it.

His eyes narrowed.

But no, random acts of maliciousness wasn't his thing, and anyway, he owed the Fourth big-time. Maybe it was time to settle the debt. Training his son wouldn't be a poor method.

"But Kaka-sensei beat me and Sasuke so _easily_, dattebayo!" Naruto half-pouted, too excited to really

"How did Yasha do?" Ghost asked curiously.

Naruto grinned as his best friend came up, not even twigging that Yūrei shouldn't know of him. "Oh, he was _really_ good. He even stole the bell, dattebayo."

"Really?" Yūrei said in surprise. "And what did he do with the other?"

"The other?" Now it was Naruto looking puzzled. "There was only one bell."

"Really… that's interesting." Yūrei trailed off in thought. _'Just what changes have Yasha made already?'_

Naruto frowned at him. "Hey, hey! But what about my training?"

Yūrei shrugged. "I don't need reports done for me. That was just Jackal's way of trying to get you to tell me where I am."

"And what's stopping me from telling her?" Naruto crossed his arms, trying the aggressive approach.

Yūrei leant down, hands on knees. Truth be told, the short Uzumaki only came up to his chest. "Once the Summon expires I'll be a couple of hundred miles away in an instant. There's not much point in telling her."

"Oh," Naruto replied blankly. _'So much for the aggressive method,'_ he thought glumly.

Yūrei spread his hands in a shrug. "Uzumaki-san, I would be willing to train you, bar the fact I'm literally going to be miles away for several years."

Naruto frowned at him. "But you said you could work around that."

Having his own words thrown back at him, Yūrei grinned at his insistence. "Well, yes. But to be honest, I'm undercover, but deep cover."

"_Deep_ cover?" Naruto wasn't sure on the difference. "What's that mean?"

"Well, it means only the Hokage actually knows I'm doing an undercover mission. To everyone else, I'm a traitor. So if someone spots me, they'll attack me."

That was a weird mix of truth and deception that Yūrei himself couldn't quite find a term for.

Naruto frowned, trying to process it. "So… wait, you're an enemy?"

Yūrei nodded, smiling. "To you, yes. If I'm Konoha's enemy, then people who don't like Konoha will hire me. That way, I can monitor the baddies. Otherwise they won't risk it." He had to really dumb down his wording to get to Naruto's level. "It's the only way I could have infiltrated Akatsuki."

Naruto needed a couple seconds, but he processed the odd scenario rather quickly and looked thoughtful. "Oh, so you shouldn't be here at all."

Yūrei nodded again, briskly. "Not at all. If anyone else in Konoha knew I was here, I would get attacked immediately."

Well, maybe not. He had a Flee-On-Sight order for him, not an Attack-On-Sight. Still, any of Akatsuki's spies would have no problem attacking him. But since Naruto had never left the village, and there was little chance of his demise in Kakashi's hands, there was no Zetsu spores on his person. Akatsuki wouldn't risk the chance of them getting spotted – in their experience, the Sharingan-user Yūrei could remove them all too regularly. And because Kakashi had Sharingan too, it would be a risk to expose the spores – not just because they could probably be spotted with Sharingan, but because Sharingan could easily genjutsu a Zetsu.

Naruto's enthusiasm was dampened by what he had heard. "That's kind of sad, your own village attacking you."

Yūrei smiled genially. "A shinobi is one who endures, Uzumaki-san."

The blond nodded morbidly. Naruto was beginning to realise just how much pain could be behind that adage.

Yūrei considered. What could he teach? The five elements was a bad idea. Naruto knowing wind chakra would be obviously suspect at this point, he barely knew how to control his chakra. Fuuinjutsu was also a bad idea, it would be too obvious there was a teacher.

He didn't want to drop Naruto after he'd gone to the effort to seek him out. Hell, even when ANBU scoured the village after he'd left, they hadn't spotted his home – mostly because of his seals. You'd have to have unsuppressed chakra constantly like Naruto did to avoid their influence.

He needed something he could teach Naruto without it being obvious to others Naruto didn't come up with it on his own. Given Naruto's lack of intelligence, but good creativity, it would be something you wouldn't need much knowledge for.

He could spill the secrets on Kage Bunshin – memory sharing, suicide bombing. Give him some tips about the future, but something he'd only work out right before it was relevant. Give him tips about Yasha – despite his suggestion he only knew of him through Zack, Yūrei knew Yasha more than he had let on.

ANBU hand signs so he could mess with everyone – nah, Naruto might get mind-walked…

Details about Akatsuki – nah, Akatsuki was Yasha's problem, he didn't want to interfere. Yasha was far more powerful than he knew, if he only learned how to tap into it.

Well, he was out of teaching topics. The only thing left were gifts.

With a sigh, he stepped forward. "Naruto, I can't think of anything I can get away with teaching you, much less a way to give you multiple teaching sessions. So instead, I'll give you a gift."

Naruto paused. "Wait, what do you mean?" he asked, eyes uncertainly flicking over the ex-ANBU.

The ANBU held out his hand, pulling off the glove to reveal pasty white skin. "I'll show you what it's like to be me."

He put his hand on Naruto's forehead, and the blond's eyes opened wide as the world expanded. Suddenly he could see right past all the trees, like he had eyes around every corner. The barely-visible building ahead of him exploded into seals, writing written all over the walls, the meanings jumping out but just as quickly fleeing. Everything slowed down, the wind rustling through the trees suddenly a series of dull scraping sound. He could predict where everything was going, every leaf and insect.

His heartbeat became a dull thudding sound, and he could feel every part of his body contracting, each muscle tensing as he moved to step away. It took only a second or two for his forehead to separate from Yūrei's hand, but it felt like twenty.

Naruto gasped for air, eyes wide, stumbling backwards.

"You haven't even seen Sage Mode or Mangekyō yet." Yūrei smiled. "Motivated?"

Naruto just blinked at him, still gasping.

"Overwhelmed is probably a better term," Yūrei considered, eyes flickering over him, pulling the glove back on. "So that's the gift for you. I've just implanted a seal on your forehead. If you're in serious danger, just says these words: chocolate, fifty-two, disturb. You'll see the world like you just did now, _but_ it'll only last a couple of minutes. And you'll have a severe backlash. Got it?"

Naruto nodded, still speechless.

The ANBU chuckled at his expression. "Awesome. I'll be going, then." He crouched, pulling out a scroll and rolling it out on the ground in one deft motion. He placed his hand on it and closed his eyes.

Ink trails flooded across the ground, surrounding him, and Naruto watched as they glowed slightly before vanishing into nothing.

Yūrei smiled at him, dusting his hands off and pocketing the scroll. "Don't come near my house again, Uzumaki-san," he gestured, "because you'll set off that new seal, and you might pull me across at a bad time."

"Wait!" Naruto said quickly, on instinct. "I… er…"

He couldn't really think straight, his mind was swimming with what he had just seen. Why was it again? Why did he need Yūrei? "I still need… training!"

"You should trust your sensei, Uzumaki-san. I used to work with him," Yūrei replied soothingly. "Trust me, he'll keep you safe enough. You just focus on improving – and here's a tip: use your clones."

With a poof of smoke, Yūrei vanished, leaving the blond boy sprawled out on the grass, staring up at empty air.

It took Naruto a few minutes before he had caught his breath. His eyes were watering and itchy from whatever Yūrei had done, and despite him wiping the tears away, they just kept coming. Whatever it was, he was suddenly grateful Yūrei hadn't gave it to him permanently. It was a massive power boost, anyone could tell, but he was nowhere near ready for it.

Naruto laughed, his body shuddering involuntarily. The massive boost of power… the flood of information…

He stumbled up, and began to walk home, his head starting to ache.

* * *

Yasha woke up, feeling a bit ill. His insects were puzzled again, for some reason. Probably his sudden change of heart about murdering everyone had upset them.

He dunked his head down and tried to sleep again, and was nearly asleep when he heard Naruto at the front door. He tracked the footstep sounds – same weight as Naruto.

As the blond appeared, Yasha looked through half-lidded eyes at him, then paused, suddenly awake. "Whoa, Naruto, what happened to your eyes?"

"Huh?" Naruto responded intelligently, sounding tired.

Yasha sat up and leant closer. His eyes were red, all the veins standing out on the white.

"What did you do? It looks like you've not slept for days!"

"I feel… kinda like that too…" Naruto replied tiredly, eying the bed.

Yasha scooted over and Naruto faceplanted on it instead. The brunette suppressed a grin at how similar they were, scanning his friend carefully.

No visible injuries. He'd cut Naruto a break, then, wasn't some villager slapping him around. "I'll let you sleep, but when you wake up you're gonna tell me what happened."

Naruto didn't respond, already snoozing away.

_'Weird.'_ Yasha shook his head slowly, scanning him again. _'Did he stare at the sun or something?'_ He let his head drop back to his pillow, and shut his eyes. _'Whatever. I'll deal with it tomorrow.'_

* * *

"Again!" Tsunade slammed down her hand, frowning angrily. "Even!"

The dice rolled as the cup slammed down, and she glared at the revealed dice.

"Thirteen, odd!" the announcer smirked.

"Damn it!" Tsunade drank down a shot of sake. "Again! Odd!"

The cup slammed down again. "Six, even!"

"Again! Odd!"

"Seven, even!" The announcer said cheerfully, before he paused and inspected the dice again. "Wait… seven, odd."

Tsunade gazed at the dice, reading the four, one, two. She'd won. She'd _won_, for the first time in weeks. "Yes!" Tsunade whooped, pulling the chips towards her. "Even!"

The dice slammed down again. "Ten, even," the announcer said, subdued by the change of events. Tsunade whooped louder – she'd not won twice in _months_.

"Even!"

"Eight, even."

The other players watched perturbed as Tsunade's luck flipped on a dime.

* * *

**AN:** …And we know what _that_ means.

If you want more stuff, check out Disillusioned, my other fanfic. Number is 11867982, and I updated it a couple of days ago. (I've mentioned it before in this story, but it's not getting the number of followers I expected, which kinda surprises me. I'd have thought all the ADHBD fans would've piled on that.)

Please review, and happy holidays!

RE InARealPickle: It's become apparent you're deliberately trolling. One look at the reviews on your own story shows that you've just been making nonsensical reviews on every story unfortunate enough to cross your path. I've contacted FF admins to see if they will block your account for abuse.


	38. The luck of Yūrei

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 38: The luck of Yūrei_**

* * *

**AN:** Last chapter summary: There's a tense Akatsuki meal with Kisame, Itachi and Yūrei, the latter two of which trade information on remaining Uchiha members via genjutsu. Itachi almost loses his cool. The three separate at Pein's mission assignment.

Konan watches Yūrei suspiciously, but is slowly and unwillingly convincing herself to let him be, by reason of the fact she doesn't have the time to monitor him constantly. Yūrei has already wised up to her presence, not hard when you have Sharingan and a search-for-people-nearby scroll. However, it becomes apparent Yūrei's fuinjutsu is more patchworked than one might expect, and the scroll isn't powerful enough to identify everyone.

Meanwhile in Konoha, Yasha attempted to forgive Konoha by reasoning they will make up for it.  
Naruto manages to find Yūrei's home by sheer persistence and luck, summoning the ex-ANBU via a defense seal.  
Instead of training him, Yūrei gave Naruto a mystewious eye seal, activated by a password. Naruto comes home totally wiped out and with strained eyes, and conks out on the bed. Yasha is puzzled.

And Tsunade's luck turns around. Which should make you all suspicious.

So we're back to Shizune. Enjoy.

* * *

Tsunade's assistant sighed as she stepped into the sleazy gambling den. Whenever Tsunade resorted to these places, Shizune had to endure the smell, the dirt… it was disgusting. Thankfully Tsunade wasn't so addicted she went to the _worst_ types of places, but she went to some pretty bad ones all the same.

And every time Shizune stepped in one, her spine crawled. Dutifully she ploughed on and found her teacher. "Tsunade, we should go, it's getting late."

"Whaatttt?" Tsunade slurred, waving erratically. "But I just got started!"

"It's nearly midnight!" Shizune told her flatly.

"We close at midnight," said a stone-faced announcer.

"Bahhh!" Tsunade chugged her final drink and stood up, staggering. "Fine, come on Shizune. I'll go get the chips changed, you wait outside."

Shizune rolled her eyes but went to do so. It was rare Tsunade had chips left to exchange. A few minutes later, her mentor stepped outside, squinting in the harsh street lighting. She was carrying two briefcases.

"What's that?" Shizune asked blankly.

"I won. A lot." Tsunade grinned tipsily, nearly dropping the case as she held it up.

"Really?" Shizune said in shock. "You won?"

"My luck turned! I started winning every game!" Tsunade whooped.

"You're kidding!" Shizune opened the case and inspected the sheaves of banknotes, jaw dropped. "That's incredible, Tsunade-sama!"

Tsunade attempted to look serious. "We don't have to skip town tonight. Go pay back those lenders we saw yesterday. I'll book an inn."

"I'll book the inn, Tsunade-sama. You're a bit drunk."

"No, I'm totally smashed!" Tsunade crowed, holding up the other briefcase triumphantly.

"Hai, hai, now let's get you to bed. Once you're in bed I'll visit the debtors."

* * *

Shizune sighed in relief as she shut the door, one suitcase in hand. She wasn't sure what to make of it. Tsunade had always had incredibly bad luck.

"Shizune-san?"

"Yes, how may I help you…?" Shizune turned, and stared at the black-masked stranger.

"I'm looking to make a business transaction with you, or Tsunade."

_'I can't sense his chakra at all! And those eyes… Sharingan?'_ Shizune swallowed. She could feel she was dealing with someone extremely dangerous. Tsunade was in no position to fight, and wouldn't be until morning. Who was he?

"My name is Yūrei. I'm working undercover with Konoha," the stranger explained politely.

Her grip tightened on the briefcase. She didn't buy it. The Uchiha was slaughtered, she might not have a Bingo Book but she read the newspapers. She chose her words carefully. "And what would you want from me? Or Tsunade?"

He shrugged. "Nothing serious, I have a medical task. It's more a theory to be explored than a patient to be healed."

"So… just questions?" she asked slowly.

He nodded. "Well, it'll involve work, but first I need to know if it's possible. If you'd like, I could accompany you to the debtors, or we can arrange a meet-up later."

It was hard to read this as not a threat that he was going to be watching her.

Later would buy time, but if he accompanied her, she would know he wasn't attacking a weakened Tsunade. She pretended to think on it. "If you want to make a deal with Tsunade, you'll have to wait until morning."

"Sleeping off the alcohol?" he asked, eye creases showing a grin.

Crap, he knew the Sannin was weakened. Shizune could only nod.

"Alright, I'll catch you guys tomorrow then? 11 o'clock sound good?"

Shizune nodded again mutely, and watched him turn and stride away. He seemed totally unruffled but her heart was pounding away. Chances are the Sharingan showed him her heartrate, but he seemed to have ignored it.

Taunting her? A threat of how insignificant she was?

Or just genuinely friendly?

Shizune wished she had some way of contacting Konoha. She'd even take Jiraiya at this point.

* * *

When Tsunade woke the next day, she wasn't very receptive. She took the news about a mysterious masked ninja rather poorly. The ninja was nowhere to be seen, but Shizune was confident he'd appear at 11 as he promised.

At Tsunade's lead, the two took the time to find the latest Bingo Book in the market. Tsunade then brought her assistant to a café on the edge of town a bit shy of 11am, and the two waited.

When 11am struck, Yūrei became visible in the street, and strode up to the two. He bowed respectfully. "Good morning ladies."

"We don't want whatever you're offering," Tsunade shot him down.

"It _is_ a beautiful day, isn't it?" Yūrei said dryly, turning and looking at the sky. The two frowned at his reaction as he gazed off for a while, before he turned back around, sounding serious. "Now Senju-sama, and Shizune-san, I have nothing nefarious to demand of you, although seeing your reaction to that would be funny."

Dark humour, great way to give them a high opinion of him. "Kid, we're not having anything to do with you." Tsunade looked in her late twenties, but she was actually closer to fifty. Most people got a rise out of being called naïve.

Yūrei, however, was unaffected by the bait. "Tsunade-sama, I have a request to make of you."

The last Senju glanced at her assistant, who was wide-eyed but holding it together, then glared back at the ninja. "I told you _no_. Are you going to leave or do I have to make you?"

"Why not?"

Tsunade slammed the Bingo Book on the table. "Yūrei, cut the bullshit. You're a missing-nin."

Yūrei shrugged disinterestedly. "Yes, but so are many people under deep cover."

Tsunade didn't buy it. "If you're under deep cover why the hell are you here?"

Yūrei gazed off into the distance. "Deep cover in my case requires me to act in unpredictable manners. This is textbook unpredictable – how many missing nin would approach a Sannin?"

Tsunade's chakra began to rile up at him pointing out she was technically meant to be attacking him. She glared icily. "No one. They'll get taken down."

Yūrei nodded invitingly. "Exactly. But I know where your old teammate is."

He could only mean Orochimaru. Puzzled by the deflection, Tsunade had to ask, "What do you mean?"

"I'm watching the same criminal organisation that Orochimaru is in," Yūrei explained, not untruthfully. "Do you honestly think I can get by him without a _severely_ good alibi?"

Tsunade gave up on the hostility (briefly). The logic was sound and the Third Hokage would have no reason to tell her about black ops. While she was angered at the jibe and mention of her teammate, she was nonetheless intrigued. "So what's your story, Uchiha?"

Yūrei reached into his pocket. "I have a chakra bloodline, which is particularly unique. Well, I say I have it, I have a _sample_ of it…" Yūrei presented a test tube of blue-coloured chakra, some seals written on the outside. "The person I got this chakra from is the only person in the world with that bloodline."

"Orphan?" Tsunade guessed, taking it .

"Yes, but the parents aren't dead." Yūrei waved it away dismissively. "Point is, this bloodline only occurs in one person, regardless of time that passes. Somewhere in this world is someone with a countering bloodline – you could say, natural enemy – and there's only one of them, too."

"So what do you want from me?" Tsunade could guess, but for clarity's sake she asked.

"I need analysis of this chakra, and a good guess at how to detect the opposing bloodline. Once I find the opposing bloodline, I can continue to the next phase."

"What's the name of these bloodlines, Yūrei-san?" Shizune asked cautiously.

Yūrei nodded at her. "I believe the one in the vial is Death Release, and the countering one is Heaven Release."

Tsunade hummed, spinning the vial in her hand. It was within her range of experience, definitely. "So you're wanting theories on how to track him…"

Yūrei nodded again. "Well, if I'm looking for medical science, it's either I go to you, or Orochimaru."

The two women blanched.

Yūrei's eyes narrowed as he looked to the side in thought. "And frankly I have a bone to pick with that snake."

For a few seconds no one spoke.

"What did he do?" Tsunade asked, smirking.

"Foiled my last deep cover," Yūrei explained, again not untruthfully. "Thankfully, it paved the way for my current one, but all the same, it was a douchey thing to do. His methods don't sit right with me anyway."

Shizune was quietly relieved that there was more to him not going to Orochimaru than just Tsunade being nearer. Tsunade relaxed a little at the shared enemy. "Haven't seen him for years. Where'd you last see him?"

"Hmm…" Yūrei tapped his lip over the mask thoughtfully. "I saw an image of him a few months back. A jutsu illusion. Besides that, must've been years ago."

Yūrei had a way of talking that was so confident and open, it was like he was speaking like you were an old friend. Tsunade didn't detect any mental illness so far, and the act wasn't forced in any way, so he was used to this sort of interaction – being civil to hostile people. He'd make a remarkable diplomat.

"Yūrei, why is this important to you _now_?" As always, Shizune had the most cutting questions. Tsunade had been wandering for years, so Yūrei could have approached earlier.

The Sannin didn't need another glance to know Shizune was subduing her fear. Yūrei could probably see through it, but he made no indication, which was polite of him.

At best Shizune was a high A-Rank, but Yūrei far surpassed that. The difference in strength would be obvious to anyone. Shizune had been scared of Yūrei before she even knew his rank, much less knew he was Flee on Sight. Tsunade could still barely believe someone else had that status.

The S-Rank hummed. "It's not really important 'at this moment', it's not urgent. But I've been trying to track this down on my own for years, and haven't gotten anywhere. Since us two were passing by each other, I thought I'd raise it with you."

Tsunade nodded. "Is this Death Release carrier you?"

Yūrei pointed at his eyes. "I have Sharingan. The Death Release carrier is a close friend of mine. Or rather, close associate."

"So you've not really met?" the Senju read between the lines again.

The ex-ANBU shook his head. "Not for that long, no. Ten minutes at best. We share a common goal, which is benefiting Konoha. After I met up with him, I had to leave for this cover mission."

"You're being very careful with your words," Tsunade probed.

Yūrei nodded again, not disapproving. "Well, yes, I'm S-Rank after all. Be polite and you shouldn't make many enemies, think about your words and you won't spill secrets you shouldn't."

Fair enough.

Shizune asked the obvious, "So this Death Release carrier is a Konoha ninja?"

"Yes, and not 'missing-nin' like myself," Yūrei emphasised the term with sarcastic air quotes, then sipped from a cup of tea neither woman had saw him produce. "He's just made genin rank I believe."

Tsunade blinked. "Oh. I was expecting something more powerful." With Yūrei being S-Rank and all, she expected his associates to be such.

Yūrei took another sip. "Well, he _is_ powerful, trust me on that. Compared to genin he'd probably surpass most of them."

Tsunade nodded. "So once you find the Heaven Release carrier…?" she prompted.

Yūrei waved his hand airily, glancing off to the distance again. "I have to secure him, bring him to Konoha or something. If the Heaven Release carrier dies, so does the Death Release, and vice versa. Don't ask me how that works. Since the Death Release kid is in Konoha anyway, and protected by their finest, I just have to find a Heaven Release kid and secure him. Or her."

"I'm guessing you have no information on the Heaven Release character's appearance?" Tsunade mused, sipping from her own glass. She had been careful not to make eye contact, and to watch her chakra for any sort of genjutsu – while it was unlikely, given Yūrei could have easily done it before she woke up today – and there was nothing so far.

Yūrei nodded, sighing deeply. "Correct. All I have is his countering bloodline, I could get blood samples or whatever's necessary to help, but that's all I have to go on."

"I see." Tsunade took another long sip. At this point, she had enough information to work with.

She could help. She wasn't up to date on operatives under deep cover, in fact she was barely up to date on anything that happened with Konoha at this point, so he could well be telling the truth. Even if he was liar, what he needed help with made sense – that sort of problem no one could solve bar someone used to dealing with multiple bloodlines and advanced chakra theory. The only two that could would be Tsunade and Orochimaru.

If Yūrei had lied about any part of his story, the whole thing would collapse and make no sense. And he'd made details easily verifiable – for example, the Death Release carrier being a fresh Konoha genin had to be true. That sort of detail was too easy to verify, and she doubted he would have bothered coming up with a big cover story full of holes.

So, she could help. If she did, a Konoha genin would be safer for it, and judging from the absurdity of the bloodline and Yūrei's high praises, that genin was probably an extremely strong asset (or would be).

If she didn't help, she lost nothing, if Yūrei _wasn't_ a genuine deep cover operative.

If he was, she still wouldn't be _harming_ anyone by refusing. She just wouldn't be helping them when she could be, either.

But there was the benefit of a task that tested her skills and she wouldn't have to work with _blood_. Chakra opposites probably wouldn't even need blood samples – just pure chakra.

This was something to go for if she ever considered her skills to be atrophying. She frowned in thought. "So, do you expect me to help for free?"

Yūrei suppressed a snort and ended up disguising it with a cough. At least she was considering it. "I have plenty of cash, if that's what you're interested in." He gestured at his face, the dark mask secured on it. "If it's not obvious from the mask, I did a lot of dangerous missions for Konoha. High-paying missions."

_'Implying ANBU. And just like an ANBU, not admitting he was in there even out of office.'_ Tsunade shrugged and feigned ignorance. "Your rank isn't obvious, you don't have a chakra presence. Seals?"

Yūrei smiled, gesturing at himself. "Yep. My presence-hiding seals, I've had these for years. Muffles sound, absorbs smell, and prevents chakra leaking."

"So all people can do is see you," Tsunade summarised.

The smile grew a bit wider. "Yep, and Sharingan makes that risky for them too. It made my missions far easier, and it makes my job under deep cover far easier too."

Tsunade nodded. "Harder to track."

The ex-ANBU nodded. "And I can Shadow Clone without anyone noticing a difference in chakra level." He gestured at himself. "Hence my being here despite my cover mission."

"Is a clone of yours being tracked?"

"That or the original. I forget."

_'How could you forget something like that?'_ Shizune wondered sarcastically.

Tsunade analysed him. "You're definitely playing things cautiously. Do you not trust me?"

Yūrei put down the cup with a click and gave her a deadpan look. For once his voice betrayed an emotion – weariness. "Tsunade-sama, I've seen so many assassinations, I know that just a _tiny_ slip-up is enough of a window for someone watching for it."

"You were an assassin then," Tsunade deciphered. Assassinations weren't a public spectacle and rarely was more than one person at the scene, although several in the team wasn't unheard of. Thus, he must have been the assassin.

Yūrei nodded, his voice back to a carefree light tone. "Assassination and infiltration. Useful skills when you're surrounded by S-Rank criminals."

"I can imagine," Tsunade said sarcastically, draining her own drink. "Why don't you just retire?"

The missing-nin smirked. "If I stop doing all the things I'm doing, I'm fairly confident several hundred if not thousands of people will die."

"So Konoha will be attacked?" Tsunade read between the lines again.

Yūrei shrugged. "Basically, that's a part of it."

Both of them tactfully ignored Shizune's horrified gasp.

"To your retirement at your earliest convenience, then." Tsunade raised the empty glass.

"Woo," Yūrei added sarcastically, clicking his cup against her glass. Tsunade waved at the waitress for a refill.

Taking a long sip of her refilled glass, Tsunade looked over at the S-Rank missing-nin. "So what sort of payment are we talking?"

"Name your price," Yūrei said disinterestedly. "I'll rob some banks on the way home."

Tsunade snorted. She could guess that was a joke, but he said it so matter-of-factly. An S-Rank would have no trouble doing it, too.

To be honest, dark humour was all too common in S-Rank circles. She was starting to cotton onto his mannerisms now she was more relaxed around him. "I'd prefer legit cash. I'd need full medical lab, and the only place for that is Konoha or the Fire Capital."

"Ah, yeah." Yūrei nodded his agreement. "Or, I could bring you to my place. Like I mentioned, I have spent a lot of time trying to investigate this. I collected plenty of equipment over time. Anything I thought would be relevant."

It probably lacked things she needed, but Tsunade gave him the benefit of the doubt. "How far away is your place?"

"It's about thirty kilometres outside Konoha, south… east… ish?" Yūrei pointed vaguely, eyes trailing in thought. "So, about two days' journey from here. Half a day if you want to flicker it."

Leading her closer to Konoha? This was looking more like a legit mission than not. No way an enemy of Konoha would lead her closer to it. Tsunade was sold. She leaned forward, eyes glittering. "I want triple your bounty for it."

Yūrei blinked. "You know this is going to benefit a Konoha genin."

Tsunade gave a disinterested huff. "Like I care about one of those brats."

"Fair enough." Ghost didn't question it, and he didn't mention her younger brother Nawaki who died a genin. While not inaccurate, that criticism was too harsh and this agreement would be out the window. "Two point five times."

Tsunade scowled. That was still… one hundred fifty, two and half… 375 million ryou. "Four hundred million ryou."

Yūrei considered. About 2.7x his bounty. Closer to his counter-offer than her first offer.

Whatever. To be honest, he didn't care. He had _oodles_ more money, he barely spent any of his mission pay, and hadn't even kept a place to rent when he was a Konoha nin. S-Rank after S-Rank along with all the lower ranked missions made for a _lot_ of pay. And his perfect mission record meant to high usage by his "commanders".

And he really _could_ survive on no money – either by stealing food, or simply living off the land. Well within his experience. The ex-ANBU shrugged. "Done."

"Let's see the cash," the Senju ordered.

Yūrei reached into his cloak, and with a few quick applications of chakra produced four small scrolls. "There. A hundred million each. Don't unseal them until you have some sort of container, they don't re-seal easily."

Shizune was, of course, suspicious. "They don't have some sort of trap?"

Yūrei shook his head briskly. Lower ranks always were antsy around more powerful people. They saw traps whereas most S-Ranks would rather just duke things out in plain sight.

But the mere fact Yūrei had revealed himself ought to say he had no hostile intentions. "Nah, on the off chance I was mugged, unsealing one of these would shut everyone up in a hurry. So if someone was to take it off me, it should unseal for them."

Tsunade gave him a dull look. "You, getting mugged?"

Yūrei chuckled. "Well, true, they never really managed to overpower me, but there you go. Worked for missions too – I just have to throw the scroll in the air as it releases, and I get a very big distraction."

Smart. "Expensive," Tsunade remarked coolly.

"Eh, money's not really something I like anyway. The very… _concept_…" Yūrei emphasised with disgust, "annoys me."

"I see." Tsunade couldn't care less about his likes and dislikes. "I'll be contacting Konoha to confirm your loyalty, then I'll look into this."

That should have thrown an unfaithful shinobi for a loop, but Yūrei only seemed mildly put out by the display of distrust. "Fair enough," he agreed, pushing the scrolls and vial forward. "Take the vial, for a start, and I'll draw a quick map for my base if you want to use it."

"A map?" Tsunade said in disbelief.

Yūrei shrugged as he unsealed a map, true to his word, and carefully marked on it with a red pen, spinning the map around and writing some directions on the back in crisp kanji. "Well, I'm still under deep cover. I didn't mention it, but come tomorrow I'll be in a different country entirely. In a few minutes I'll have to chase down my shadow clone and take his place, so I won't be around to escort you there."

"You realise this just screams trap," Tsunade baited, taking the scrolls, vial and map anyway, while eyeing his reaction. It really didn't, but his reaction might say something.

Yūrei merely rolled his eyes. "I paid you, I gave you the resources and motive, and you don't _have_ to go here," he said dryly, sealing up his teacup and standing up slowly. "I also didn't set a time. I literally can't make it _less_ of a risk for you."

Shizune suppressed a sigh of relief at the exchange coming to a close, but had to speak up again. "Where are you going now?"

"I'm watching an organisation called the Akatsuki. If you meet up with Jiraiya, he may be able to give you more information about them." The two women were startled at that easy invitation to contact another Sannin for proof, but the missing-nin just continued briskly. "They haven't given me a destination, but I'm moving out the country soon."

"Okay. If we do track down the Heaven Release carrier, do you have to find out or should we just move them to Konoha?" Tsunade made her final probe at his intentions.

Yūrei whistled thoughtfully. "Hmm… I hadn't considered that." Only a few seconds passed before he replied reluctantly. "I _suppose_ you could just move them to Konoha, I have a lot of hypothesises I wanted to check with regards to how such a countering bloodline _can_ exist, but I'd rather them be in Konoha than out and about in dangerous areas. Once I'm out of cover I'll be in Konoha anyway."

Tsunade nodded. "Any ideas when you'll be out of cover? When your mission ends?"

"Pffft." Yūrei looked a bit morbid. "Probably years. Hopefully, less than a decade."

That was quite a dedication, genuine or not. He certainly didn't seem to enjoy his time away. Tsunade nodded again. "Well, I hope you look back on those years knowing you accomplished something worthwhile."

"I should hope I do." Yūrei grinned, offering a handshake which Tsunade accepted.

She resisted the urge to use her large strength to crush his hand, and he resisted the urge to point out by comparison to him, _she_ was wasting her time gambling those years away. The quip could wait until _after_ she was done looking into it – Yūrei was nothing if not tactfully silent.

Yūrei offered his hand to Shizune, and a bit more hesitantly she took it, if only not to seem rude. He scratched his right arm idly. "Well, I'll catch you two later, I guess. Long road ahead."

"See you," Tsunade replied after him, watching him retreat.

* * *

As he strode away, Yūrei grinned. He'd not planted a genjutsu, and she bought the story – not that any part of it was a lie, which it wasn't.

No, he was grinning because she played right into his hands – since the research into Heaven Release _would_ actually help Yasha, and Yasha was a (tentatively) accepted member of Konoha, she was ethically obliged/duty-bound to carry the research out, even if the Hokage still thought Yūrei was bad news.

She wouldn't be able to drop the research once she discovered the Hokage didn't count him loyal. No, on the contrary, to help a Konoha genin, and because the Third and Jiraiya both were interested in Yasha's bloodline, she'd be persuaded to help regardless.

In addition, Yūrei had paid for it and provided a location, deliberately _before_ she could find out his loyalty. That way he'd never have to meet up with her after assigning the task – all the resources he could give her were in front of her right now. He didn't want to risk meeting up with her.

If Tsunade heard from the Third he was untrustworthy she'd attack pretty much on sight. Even if she wouldn't, Jiraiya and the Third would be very eager to trap Yūrei. As soon as he received summons to go to the research facility, he'd be expecting an ambush. The odds of there _not_ being one were astronomical.

Of course, he'd send a shadow clone to the ambush, but it was still risky nonetheless. A pre-meditated seal to pull his chakra out would pop the shadow clone, but it might also be a locating seal that will use the pulled-out chakra to point out his real self's location. That sort of thing wasn't too outlandish to make, and even with all his seals on his clothing, it might even work.

Long story short, visiting the research facility for updates or even for the results was _not_ going to happen.

But he had information sources in Konoha. He could watch the scene. If someone new started interacting with Yasha, he'd know what it meant.

And maybe he'd see what form the opposite of carnivorous insect swarms took.

* * *

Shizune gazed after him with a frown, before turning to her mentor. She was about to speak, but Tsunade held up a finger, silencing her, her brown eyes hardened.

Once Yūrei was almost out of sight, Tsunade lowered her finger. "How are you doing Shizune?"

"No-nothing changed." Shizune rarely stuttered, but the last couple of minutes had her incredibly tense. She was confident in her sensei, but Yūrei was incredibly intimidating, without even trying to be – and the fact he wasn't even _trying_ to be, made it all the worse for her. If he was _idly_ scary, what would he be like when he was _deliberately_ scary?

If the two had decked it out Shizune was well aware she would be lost to the sidelines in heartbeat – maybe even in Tsunade's way.

Despite Tsunade's aggression, and Shizune frankly thought that was the correct attitude to have, Yūrei had remained civil and calm. He had a growling, yet soothing voice and after a while of his easy-going attitude, Tsunade was forced to either attack him, or calm down and do information gathering on the missing-nin's motives – after all, not many criminals would approach a Sannin willingly (like Yūrei pointed out). Tsunade had chosen the latter, thankfully for her nervous assistant.

Tsunade huffed. "Fine. What did you make of him?"

"He's very guarded. I think…" Shizune began, then trailed off. "I'm not sure," she admitted helplessly. "I couldn't get a read on him."

Tsunade didn't rebuke her for it. Truth be told, she barely read much from him either. "I think he's telling the truth about the problem, and about that genin. Otherwise the whole thing makes no sense."

Shizune blinked, surprised. "You don't think he's actually in deep cover?"

"To be honest, it doesn't really make a difference," Tsunade said flatly. "He could be a Kumo ninja for all I care. He paid, he was polite, and this research won't harm Konoha… but no, I don't think he's genuinely working for Konoha. Perhaps he's a double agent for Akatsuki, and the Heaven Release carrier will be working for them too, and basically he's just trying to inject a spy into Konoha."

Shizune frowned. "But that…"

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Yes, this would be a _very_ roundabout way of doing things. A spy would normally get into Konoha under their own steam, undetected, not under observation of medical research personnel." Tsunade flung her hands in the air. "I don't know. I don't see why this research would harm Konoha, and he _has_ paid. I'll contact Jiraiya and ask him about this Akatsuki and Death Release nonsense first, before I so much as look at this vial, though."

Shizune, who had opened her mouth to protest, shut it and nodded. "Okay. Fine."

Tsunade stood and put a hand on her assistant's shoulder, making her tense briefly. "He's not hostile to us, anyway, so you can relax. If he was, he's an assassin; frankly, yesterday I'd have been attacked when I was vulnerable. And with his skill set, I'm not confident I would have survived that. So he's not hostile. You can relax."

Shizune pursed her lips, but nodded. "So how do we contact Jiraiya?"

* * *

Yasha woke up, feeling better. His swarms had calmed down from whatever got them upset, and he felt a bit more… relaxed than he normally did.

Probably all in his head, though.

_'As opposed to what?'_ his brain asked helpfully.

"Shut up," he grumbled, sitting upright. It was getting to early evening – the sun was setting.

"Probably thrown my sleep schedule in the bin with that nap," he mused. With a sigh, his gaze turned to the lump in the bed behind him. Naruto was sound asleep, drooling onto the pillow.

He carefully leant over, pulling open one of the blond's eyes, which were in REM sleep stage and creepily roamed around the room unseeingly.

The veins were still quite pronounced – getting better though. With that sort of injury he'd be sleeping probably through the night.

Yasha sat back with a quiet huff, frowning. _'What happened to the Kyuubi's healing factor? Is it a bit slower than I expected or were his eyes even worse than I thought?'_

Opening the other eye, he inspected it a bit closer. It didn't look that serious – it was healing after all. But what could cause that? Straining eyes was one thing, staring at the sun another thing… but he doubted even for a bet that Naruto would do something like that.

The only eye injury you could get like that was straining your eyes. Three ways to do that: keep rubbing them, gaze at something extremely bright, or go underwater without shutting your eyes.

His hair wasn't damp when he came in – Yasha remembered that clearly enough – so water was out. There was no yellow swelling of the actual white of the eyes, just serious red vein swelling, so rubbing was unlikely too.

Yasha made a mental note as he gazed at Naruto's sleeping face: use the mind technique and ask him.

Actually, wow – now he had shadow clones, he could use the mind techniques on the sly! Why hadn't he thought of that before?

Well, he could only do that in rare cases, true – most people would detect a shadow clone – but he could do it in controlled environments like his home. No one around to witness the clone, bar him.

There were weak points, though. He'd have to be in a place where he pretty much had clear sight of the victim, yet they couldn't – or just wouldn't – see him. Naruto wasn't very observant (outside a battle scenario), so Yasha could get away with turning his back to the doorway and have a clone by the doorway firing the listen-in technique, but obviously he'd need to work on his ability to bend it around corners.

His brain had been kinda off-kilter from that time he had latched onto Mizuki through tree leaves, but it _was_ possible to use his mind reading around corners. Not through full walls, though, he'd not managed that. He didn't even want to try – that risked a good time period of his brain being unable to do things properly.

Maybe now he had clones, that careful attitude could be done away with – he could do riskier things. Particularly if he had two clones – one to do the mind transfer test and the other to stand guard or even pop the first.

He wasn't sure what would happen if he was using a mind technique as a clone, then the clone was popped. Would his connection just end quietly?

Or would his mind be forever cursed to wander the corridors of the mind it had invaded?

He snorted at his poetic cynicism. Unlikely. He'd probably end up… probably a happy end, his mind disconnecting and memories returning to the original, just like normal clone pop. Worst case scenario his mind would be scattered for a while and for a few minutes, maybe hours, he wouldn't be in control of his body, it being just slumped, like when he did a strong connection.

He doubted the swarms that could hold a mental connection were too dumb to cut it off when the mind vanished, or let their host be essentially a vegetable – for very long anyway.

It was definitely worth investigating, and he wasn't going to a Yamanaka for advice.

Hmm… What if a clone popped and memories returned to him while he was already connected? Would the memories arrive immediately despite the connection? Would they interfere with the thoughts of the person he was connected to?

That was a risk – not one he could investigate without a test dummy. And, he'd only used the thought reading some ten-odd times since he arrived in Konoha – most of the time on civilians. Most of his class didn't even know he _could_ mind-read – good thing too. Unless he was planning to reveal it to Team 7, then he had no test dummy.

Forget Sasuke, he'd be hording his anger like an internalised weapon – Yasha's mind techniques would never be allowed to go near that.

Forget Naruto, while he'd be happy to do it, Kakashi would forbid it outright, what with the Kyuubi.

Forget clones, that wouldn't really help him with returning-memory tests, or even any sort of mind technique test – the clones' swarms may well cancel out the mind technique or make it go even more invasive than it would on other people.

He doubted Kakashi would be a healthy option to mind-walk – ANBU mind seals, or whatnot, he doubted Kakashi would want him in there.

_'Speaking of seals…'_ Yasha's eyes trailed down to the blond's belly, which was out of sight as Naruto was on his front.

He hadn't spoken to the Kyuubi since the first time – he'd tried respectful, and after he was just insulted, basically said "you're under my control if I so wish it", then left.

The Kyuubi wouldn't be happy to see him, but it would be a change of pace for the fox. Yasha scratched his forehead, humming in thought.

He very much doubted the Kyuubi could attack him, either. Those jail bars were serious business.

But what should he talk about? Attempt to emphasise with the Kyuubi?

Kyuubi wasn't dissimilar to Sasuke's personality at this point. Although Sasuke saw Yasha as a potential partner to work with to kill Itachi and Yūrei. Kyuubi had no one to talk to – and his host was immature and not that bright, so watching his actions couldn't be that entertaining either.

Yasha could visit the Kyuubi to give him a change of pace, but that amounted to pity, and the Kyuubi would hate that. Unless he went in with something useful to tell the Kyuubi, he was going in to get roared at and booted out.

Frankly his personality wasn't really up for saying "oh you poor idle abandoned thing". He was meant to intrigue the Kyuubi as a dark figure, one that could manipulate Naruto into releasing him.

He did that with his last impression. Going in asking "how are you doing?" wouldn't help that.

More info about the future, about other Bijū, about how Naruto was going to release the Kyuubi… stuff like that would make the visit worthwhile to the Nine-Tailed Fox. Empathy wasn't going to get him any favours.

Sighing, because Yasha _was_ pretty curious about the Kyuubi's status, he let his eyes drift further to the clock and window. It was coming on autumn, and it was 4:12pm out. He had enough time to visit the bank and check his balance.

Then what? It was late, and while he could grab something to eat, Naruto probably wouldn't wake up until much later on, if not in the morning.

With a hum, he stood back up, pulling back on his shoes. Despite being dead tired, he had unconsciously kicked them off when he faceplanted into bed.

He couldn't really enjoy wearing shoes. He liked being barefoot and wearing shoes, but sandals, sandals with socks – blergh. He really had no idea why they were a trend in Konoha – for shinobi they had so many weaknesses it wasn't even funny.

The brunette made his way to the front door, and stepped out again, pinning a hair into the frame like normal. He glanced both ways – a woman was looking at him idly, and he nodded at her. She nodded back on reflex, then a realising frown crossed her face as she worked out who he was and she turned away.

Good enough. He smiled as he made his way down the stairs of the apartment, heading to the bank.

* * *

"Whatttt?" Nyoko said in shock. "So she was Raiko's girlfriend the whole time?"

"Exactly!" her co-worker replied excitedly, then she looked at the doors opened and her tone fell. "Oh. Here comes trouble."

Following her nod, Nyoko spun in her chair, donning her usual greeting smile, which almost fell off when the monster's dangerous friend strode forward.

Nyoko's thoughts raced. He looked normal – calm, relaxed. There was something – a bit… well, dangerous about him. He had this aura of attentiveness, being geared for action, ready to strike.

Her eyes went to the Konoha forehead protector, and she blinked, taken aback. They had actually made him a ninja?

The Hokage himself had approved of him?

Was there more to him than met the eye?

The boy's eyes shifted between him and her co-worker, before he strode over to her booth and shut the door of the booth. "Heyo."

"Hi," she replied automatically, tactfully adding on, "customer-san."

"I'd like to check my balance, please," the boy asked politely.

She let herself shift back into automatic. "Yes, sir, can I have your account details?"

Her co-worker pretended to be busy with the filing cabinet behind the desk. Nyoko hid her grin, quickly pulling up the information.

"Yes, sir. Your balance is available, just type in your password." She gestured at the small covered screen on his side of the counter.

Yasha dutifully typed in the password.

The screen showed seven hundred and two thousand, nine hundred and fifty two ryou.

Yasha blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Is there a problem, sir?" Nyoko asked politely.

Yasha looked up. "Err, no. Excuse me for a minute."

She nodded, and he tapped on the statement. Most recent transfer – seven hundred thousand ryou input in one transaction. Obligingly, the screen revealed the sender's account details, but also a transfer description: _one for all, all for one_.

Heart beating much faster, Yasha suddenly felt like he had stolen something. Was this some sort of trick? Easy way to tell.

"Excuse me, I have account details here for someone who's sent money to me, but I don't recall who was meant to – can I view the name of the sender?"

"If the details are available they haven't made it anonymous. Can you tell me the account?" Nyoko asked him.

He did so, and she tapped away, before looking at the screen with a slight frown. "Yes, here it is: the name for that account is Yūrei."

* * *

Stepping out of the bank in a daze, Yasha felt a flood of shocked relief come over him.

He'd only been sent into Konoha with three hundred thousand ryou. And Yūrei had just blown that out of the water! Yasha could buy high-grade ninja equipment, pay rent for months more – this was brilliant!

Yasha was genuinely smiling for once; things were finally going his way. His worries about finances had just been firmly eradicated. He could still take money from Sasuke – no ethical problem if it was for Uchiha kids – but now he didn't even _need_ to.

All the awkward conversations about "how do you have a spy network" and "is there any updates" just eliminated.

Roughly speaking, he and the kids had lasted about four months. The kids had only been his problem for a month, but he entered Konoha around four months ago.

Even given their considerable usage of money, he still had months left. That wasn't even counting the countering income from all the D-Ranks and possibly even higher-ranked missions. Now he could leave Konoha for those C-Ranks without worrying if Keito had enough money!

_'Yūrei, I could __**kiss**__ you!'_ He grinned. _'But only if you're still wearing the mask.'_

He rubbed the wads of notes in his side pocket, resisting the urge to take them out in public and recount. He hadn't withdrawn much – a few tens of thousands, enough to last a couple weeks.

As he made his way home, he paused, suddenly realising – Yūrei was a missing-nin. The date on that transaction was weeks after the massacre. Had he made a delayed transaction so it wasn't obvious?

Possibly. Or, he had somehow snuck into Konoha – or indeed was living here anyway – and made the transaction.

Either way, now Yasha read between the lines – the bank transaction message had more than one layer.

One for all, all for one.

A message of support saying Yūrei wanted to support Yasha, but couldn't really help Yasha more directly. He could help, but realistically they had to remain separate, or they'd arouse suspicion.

At least, that was the first layer.

One for all, all for one.

Seven hundred thousand.

Seven kids.

**One** hundred thousand **for all** the kids. **All **money sent** for one** person, Yasha.

"Clever wordplay, Yūrei." Yasha grinned. If someone was looking over at the statement, the Hokage or someone, he'd just think that was some sort of support message, but the number of seven held special meaning to Yasha and apparently Yūrei too.

At some point Yūrei must have seen him with the seven Uchiha kids. And obviously not cottoned the Hokage or anyone else on. Yūrei was looking more like a good guy than a sadistic long-term planner.

At the very least, it was evident he didn't want the kids getting discovered, and his intelligence was high too. The deception level was a worry factor, though. Yasha rolled his eyes; he now knew how everyone felt about him.

Hang on, that date…

Was that the date he 'saved' Ino in her home from Yūrei?

That was devious. Yūrei obviously knew shadow clone and had not only caught Ino and scared Inoichi with them, but had been using other clones to performing things around town too – most likely including checking up on the Uchiha kids and depositing money in Yasha's bank account.

How Yūrei got Yasha's bank details was dubious, but he was ANBU with Sharingan. Only Yasha knew the details, so it was either the bank staff doing a general lookup, or he was compromised himself. Since Yasha himself was immune to genjutsu… it was obvious.

Yūrei probably wouldn't have had too much difficulty using genjutsu on one of the bank tellers once they left the bank building (and its protective seals). There was only so far you could go against ninja with the same village's ninja's seals. The biggest weakness was civilians, and even if the bank staff were ex-shinobi, Yūrei seemed more than powerful enough to take them on.

Was Yūrei making contact with Zack outside of the village? That'd be clever too. Zack knew all sorts of details – from time travel or whatever. Maybe there was more to his powers than simple "transport person back in time". Maybe he could look into the past or future, see other places effortlessly – wasn't _too_ outlandish.

Most people couldn't even deal with a dimension release carrier. It literally took the Sage of Six Paths the first time around. And even then he couldn't knock him out or something – he had to seal the bloodline itself.

Maybe time control gave Zack super speed and reflexes – speed himself up and everyone else sees a blur. The instruction scroll didn't say, but it wasn't relevant to Yasha's mission, so it wouldn't say anyway.

At least his financial problems were solved. And it looked like the bank wasn't as hostile to him as other shops… well, it wasn't a shop, but eh. There was nothing suspicious in the activity, and no funds lost or sudden taxes. So that was good too.

People in the street weren't paying Yasha as much attention as normal. Yasha grinned again. It looked like his forgiveness had straightened out his chakra intent… at least, partially. So it _was_ all in his head.

Made sense the insects that could read minds could read his passive emotions. It was already minute detail on the brain to read thoughts.

That was at least three things that had worked out in his favour. Maybe his luck was turning, finally.

* * *

**AN:** Woo, go Yasha. Life giving you lemons for once.

Or rather, Yūrei giving everyone lemons. Luck caused by Yūrei. Get the chapter title now?

Next chapter is Wave arc, and oh _man_ is it a doozy. I was so hyped to post the next few scenes, but it'd have made this chapter 20k words.

And I need all the Most Recently Updated followers I can get!

The Wave Arc does not go as you might expect. Replacing Sakura with Yasha makes the initial Zabuza confrontation take a _very_ different spin. Such a different spin, in fact, it blew a fuse in my MRAT code, and delayed this chapter by quite a long while. (_trying desperately not to spoil)_

Maybe if I get a lot of response for this chapter I'll post it early. If I get 2 reviews or just "next chapter plz" type reviews I'll just let it stew for a month or so. _(threatening fans is best strategy)_

I took the liberty of including Zabuza's perspective. It's rarely explored.

For this chapter's reviews, if you're stumped on what to write, is there anything you'd like to see more detail for in this story?

Thanks for reading and your responses! Makes it all worthwhile. ~SortaCore


	39. The luck of Yasha

**A Duty Held By Darkness**

**_Chapter 39: The luck of Yasha_**

* * *

**AN:** The actions in this chapter really messed with my dimension machine. 13k words, enjoy.

* * *

The messenger hawk flew to the window pane, tapping irritably on the window. Inside, Isamu Hashimoto, the genin posted in the messenger tower, grinned at him. "Hey there, got a message for me?"

The hawk just tapped again, fixing the genin with a glare.

Isamu opened the window, taking the paper off its leg. "Let's see… oh, an S-Rank, really?" Those were rare – this was only his third time he had got one. His eyes widened further. "And it's urgent, that's a first."

The genin took the scroll, careful not to inject any chakra into it, and cautiously pocketed it, putting the hawk back into its cage and topping up the food and drink bowls. He injected some chakra into the seal by the door, unlocking it.

He stepped out, looking over at his superior, who was bent over stacks of paper. "Sempai, I've got an urgent S-Rank."

"Oh, really?" Masao Nakajima glanced over his glasses at the message, eyes widening slightly. "That's rare. Hop along to the Hokage then. Wake him up if you have to."

"Yes sir." Isamu took a gulp of air and started to run.

* * *

The Hokage blinked as a genin tapped on the open door. "Oh, come in Isamu-kun."

Isamu entered, panting and looking a bit nervous. "S-Rank message from north-west hawk, sir. Marked urgent."

The Hokage took it, frowning. Jiraiya preferred to return rather than send a message with that high a priority – he didn't trust Danzō not to snoop. "Thank you. Please shut the door and wait outside."

"Yes sir." Isamu bowed politely and scurried out, shutting the door firmly behind him.

His grandfatherly aura gone, Hiruzen activated the privacy seals, and frowned at the seal on the message, popping it open and injecting chakra. The message revealed itself:

"A missing-nin is requesting help from me on behalf of a genin in Konoha. Is he undercover? Let me know how to respond. Full report enclosed. ~Tsunade."

The Hokage's frown deepened as he opened the sub-seal below the message, a Sannin variant Jiraiya had come up with. It produced a smaller scroll.

His eyes widened. Yūrei.

And then they narrowed as he read through it. "Really… that's interesting."

Hiruzen sat back, taking a long puff on his pipe. Tsunade had been out of it but not attacked. Absent as she might be, she was still a significant player in Konoha's military strength. Yūrei hadn't attacked her, so he was unlikely to be trying to get rid of her.

It wasn't a ploy to just occupy her away from Konoha. Yūrei's suggested research base was only a few minutes outside of Konoha at body-flicker pace –doubled if a messenger would have to go get her, but it was definitely not an attempt to weaken Konoha.

Yūrei would want to protect Yasha, that made sense, both being on Zack's missions. And Yasha had commented on a countering bloodline with just one carrier, but the Heaven Release carrier's death meaning Yasha's death… that was new. Did Yasha mention that? Or was it just a lie to motivate the Hokage to approve this mission?

Even if it was a lie, it wouldn't matter. The Hokage wanted the countering bloodline found regardless of that fact. Yasha was powerful, and it followed that the opposite bloodline would be powerful too. Someone who could counter Yasha's genjutsu/seal-proof nature was very desirable to have too.

Yūrei having a research base was worth investigating. Obviously, with presence-less clones and having the password to the village barrier, plus at that small distance, Yūrei sending shadow clones to build the base would be very doable. But it was the only building of his they knew of – they still hadn't found a building in Konoha.

It looked very likely that Ghost had found a Hyuuga and trust-genjutsu'd them into helping him make a Byakugan-proof seal, then genjutsu'd them to forget they helped. It would be impossible to work out which Hyuuga – anyone with a working Byakugan would be sufficient.

Hiruzen would be implying disloyalty or stupidity for the Hyuuga's part, so he hadn't expected Hiashi to agree to a mindwalk of all the Hyuuga on the off chance there were traces left.

Especially the main family. The Hyuuga situation was delicate as is.

With the S-Rank mental genjutsu Yūrei had set up in several people – close to a hundred – he'd certainly proven it was a doable thing to manipulate memories. It was even possible he had done it on a Yamanaka to improve future applications.

Whatever Mangekyō technique he had, it was in the same league as Kotoamatsukami, but clearly didn't have the same cooldown.

The Hokage pulled out a brush and began to write fluidly. "Jiraiya will be joining you at your current location in the next few days. Then make your way to Yūrei's research location, and do as he requested. Yūrei believes himself under deep cover, and a loyal member of Konoha – none of his actions bar his involvement in the Uchiha massacre deny that.

"If you see him again, attempt to take him down if possible, but note he has an S-Rank, undetectable and irremovable genjutsu, and uses shadow clones in nearly every scenario. If in doubt, veer to passive – he can use the genjutsu on multiple targets, one that requires nothing but being within earshot of those targets. If he has used it, one of his Sharingan eyes will emit a genjutsu, or close."

The Hokage tapped his lip with the brush end thoughtfully. Anything else?

"Yūrei's information appears valid. There is a boy in Konoha with Death Release, and he is a powerful genin with close emotional ties to the Jinchūriki. If you do track down the countering bloodline, please notify me and send Jiraiya to investigate the carrier. At that point you're done."

Another few taps. A small smile appeared as he added more.

"You're welcome to come back to Konoha – I'd appreciate having a talk with you that isn't just business."

Hiruzen signed it deftly, and reached into his desk, pulling another S-Rank scroll and thumbing through sealing paper. The Tsunade-only papers had been gathering dust.

A few chakra applications later and the scroll was safely sealed up. He called Isamu back in to take it, and the genin bowed again and ran off in that 'meant to be running but don't want to be rude' way. The Hokage's eyes idly trailed after him.

The genin were shaping up to have great potential this year. He wouldn't be surprised if most of the rookies were recommended for the Chuunin exams.

He let himself drift for a few seconds, then with a sigh, he turned back to the rest of his papers.

* * *

Naruto woke up, but his eyes were glued shut. He stumbled up, pulling them apart in horror – but it was just gunk on his eyelids.

"Gross," he muttered, heading into the bathroom.

One face wash later and he stepped out, nearly walking into Yasha, who was glaring at him with his arms crossed. "_You,_ I think, have some explaining to do."

Naruto winced as Yasha pulled him to the side, the blond's back to the doorway.

"So what was all that mess with your eyes?" The brunette demanded immediately. "How did you screw them up so badly?"

"It was… err…" Naruto floundered for a response. Should he say he was trying to find training? Should he try and trick Yasha? Should he even _want_ to?

"Don't lie to me. Tell me straight," Yasha ordered flatly.

Naruto sighed. He didn't want to lie to him. He wasn't even sure what excuse he could use. "It was training. I went looking for an ANBU for training, and he gave me this… eye-seal. This seal that affected my eyes."

"Eye seal?" Yasha's arms dropped, and he looked at him thoughtfully. "What sort of eyes did he have?"

"Red with uh, three black dots… no, not dots…" Naruto scrunched up his face thinking of the word.

"…Tomoe," Yasha finished, frowning in thought. Itachi? Yūrei? Couldn't tell from appearance. "Was he wearing a mask?"

Naruto looked at him strangely. "…yes."

"A black mask?"

"Yes…" Naruto replied slowly.

_'Yūrei, then.'_ Yasha wasn't sure what to think of him being here. "Black cloak with red clouds, lined with white?"

"Yes!" Naruto was gazing at him in disbelief now. "How did you know?"

"I've met him before," Yasha said, relaxing a little. The one he had met in Ino's garden. So, the mysterious possibly-helpful, possibly-long-term-sadist apparently-working-for-Zack made another appearance. "So did he try to hurt you?"

"No, he just gave me like… this vision boost!" Naruto's disbelief switched to enthusiasm, and he waved his arms animatedly. "The world just like… popped, dattebayo! It went bigger!"

"You could see more detail?" Yasha deciphered. Naruto's vocabulary had a tendency to vanish when he was excited.

"Yeah!" Naruto verified eagerly.

"Could you see chakra?" Yasha pressed.

Naruto frowned. "I didn't really see anything with chakra… but like, everything slowed down, dattebayo."

Weird, he didn't even see chakra for Yūrei? Maybe it wasn't Sharingan. "And what did he say?"

Naruto's expression scrunched up in thought. "Um, he said, 'I can't train you, so I'll give you a gift instead.' Then he gave me the eye thing that made my eyes all strained out earlier, and he said to activate it again, I just have to say… um… chocolate, fifty-two… um… disturbed?"

"Uh… okay." Yasha blinked. "Wait, if you just said it, wouldn't it activate?"

"Oh. Oh, yeah," Naruto realised, hands going to eyes quickly, but finding nothing had changed.

Yasha smirked. "It's probably because of all your um's in the middle of it. If you remember the phrase, that's fine, don't say it to practice."

Naruto nodded briskly. "I remember everything from then – it's like that eye thing made me memorise it, dattebayo."

_'Smart, Yūrei, forcing him to remember.'_ Yasha was still puzzled. '_But that implies Yūrei gave Naruto some sort of temporary Sharingan. Nah… could he even do that?_

_'Then maybe it was some other type of chakra? A seal to forcibly boost adrenaline and brain properties?'_

The blond blinked as he recalled another detail. "Oh, and he also said it would only work once."

Yasha nodded slowly, processing. Sharingan or not, the effect could only be held very briefly. And maybe just on Naruto, someone with big healing properties. Naruto's eyes were pretty strained just from that brief period of boosted perception.

Even if he was blinded, Yūrei knew Naruto would have his eyes healed pretty quickly. There was no way the self-preservation of the Fox wouldn't extend to blindness.

Although, the Death Release carrier would have a bone to pick if Yūrei had blinded Naruto. There was a line with how far you could injure someone and be let off by their teammates, and that was crossing it.

Yasha looked at the blond, stern expression on his face. "Obviously, I shouldn't have to tell you this Naruto – but don't use that seal unless you're _seriously_ out of options. You won't be able to see properly once it's expired."

Naruto nodded slowly, recognising Yasha's serious mode. "Yep, yep, I got it."

Yasha grinned, putting his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I can guess you want training and serious missions straight off the bat, but let Kakashi set the pace. If you work out of his control, he's going to struggle with the team."

"But I need more training!" Naruto insisted. "I'm tired of being dead-last!"

The brunette hummed in thought. "Well, I should have some free time now." Thanks to shadow clones, his kiddie-base time was now free time. "So how about us two do some more training together like we used to?"

Naruto's face lit up. "For real?"

"For real. Now we've started D-Ranks, we're not on Academy schedule. I have more free time now."

Naruto hugged him, and Yasha blinked, a bit off guard.

Oh, this was the older-family-member emotional connection kicking in. He sighed, returning the hug. Both were orphans, they really had no idea how to talk to people. When to interact, when to hug, how much physical contact was necessary.

Life was just unfair sometimes.

* * *

It only took a full week from graduation before Yasha could pull off a Kage Bunshin without crippling nausea. He deliberately used the technique at least once or twice a day, forcing himself to get used to it as quickly as possible so he'd have a way to watch kiddie base without detection.

After he had lost the nausea by glorified exposure therapy, with each attempt following, his chakra control exercises paid off, and the chakra cost of the technique lowered, giving more for extra clones.

It still took another half a week before he worked out Multiple Kage Bunshin; although he could only make a maximum of three. The nausea was minor on the first Multiple, and by the second Multiple it had gone.

So now, safely in a field on the outskirts of Konoha under cover of darkness, the Death Release carrier made a hand seal. "Right, let's practice it. Kage Bunshin! Henge!"

The clone gazed at the original's Uchiha Madara up and down, walking around him, and shrugged. "It's fine."

"Just fine?" Madara pressed in Yasha's voice, and both winced at the obvious mistake.

"Yeah. Your voice is still the same, though. Distort it a little, and do the Uchiha arrogance thing. Attitude, remember."

Yasha released and instantly reapplied the Henge, with only traces of chakra smoke leaking. He upturned his nose a little and crossed his arms with an unimpressed stoicism.

The Yasha-clone grinned. "Better… make it a bit taller, and more muscular. He's gonna be only a bit shorter than Kakashi, remember."

"You think I would forget such amateur things?" Madara asked in sheer disbelief, his grating voice now nothing like Yasha's smooth-as-silk tones. He remade the Tiger seal and grew a few inches, more chakra smoke leaking to disguise it.

"Okay. So, I imagine that armour rattles a little. How did you make it?"

"It's metallic, but obviously, it's only a chakra construct," Madara replied, tapping his arm-plate which gave off little metallic clinks. "Won't hold up to attacks."

The clone nodded. "You're good for intimidation, but have you chewed up your speed?"

Yasha nodded back. "My weight is a few kilograms total. I designed it for sprinting, so more intimidation power. That brings my top speed up to something ridiculously high, but my density is practically nothing because of it."

"We'll need to practise that then – we don't want to intimidate with our speed in the field, and end up popping before we travel anywhere. As clones, in case you impact a tree or something, it would kill you as the original."

"Yep. Kai."

The Henge undid itself and the clone dispelled.

Yasha flinched from the chakra hit. He quickly ran over the memories, re-absorbing the outside perspective and updating how to make an ideal Madara Henge, and re-cloned himself. Two Uchiha Madaras stared at him, chakra-construct swords drawn.

"Race to the end of the field and back," Yasha requested. "Go."

The two Madaras sighed in unison, not wanting to exert the effort, before they bent down and vanished. One dispelled halfway, after misstepping and having its featherweight ankle joint snap.

The original flinched at the memory and watched the other one with a frown. That speed was… incredibly fast. Body-flicker fast, but then again, he'd never seen a body-flicker that both started _and_ stopped in front of him – Kakashi would appear or disappear in front of Yasha often enough, but he never did both at once, so his actual speed during the flicker was unknown.

Crossing a kilometre field in a few seconds was still pretty damn fast, though. The clone managed it and ran back, in front of Yasha in another three seconds.

"That's an impressive speed."

"Of course, weakling. I am Uchiha Madara."

Yasha smirked and poked him with a finger, forgetting the Henge had an extremely low density.

They both looked down at his finger completely embedded within the body for an instant before the clone dispelled.

Yasha got the jibblerlys and made a note to _never do that again_.

Still, progress. He had a rather fast Madara impersonation. And judging from lack of jounin on the outskirts, his Henge wasn't releasing the KI it used to.

His mental attempts to release his hatred were paying off. He was fairly certain he could regain impressive KI on demand, though, but at least he wouldn't be _passively _releasing it.

On the minus side, although being subdued considerably by Yūrei's influence, and Yasha training him as promised, Naruto was still annoyed about the lack of challenge in D-Ranks. Yasha predicted in the next few days, the blond would snap.

And frankly, Yasha was kinda tired of them too. He didn't really care about keeping up a monster appearance – that was a nice side-effect of his bloodline, but now he'd depowered his KI release, it wasn't necessary – so he was fine with doing silly D-Ranks like gardening and babysitting.

Heck, he did babysitting before he lowered his KI. Why had the civilians allowed him to? Word of mouth creating a good impression? Really low rates?

Maybe his lack of hatred for their kids somehow got across to them. Chakra intent was all about subconscious and whatnot.

Maybe they just thought he was an Uchiha and ignored the danger feelings. Maybe they were ninja themselves and knew he gave off KI passively through the grapevine. Or maybe Yūrei had pulled some strings.

That question was going to bug Yasha for a good while.

But Yasha didn't like the D-Ranks for another reason: they weren't doing much for him, or for the team. All three of them wanted more serious missions, and the fact they weren't getting them was making them frustrated on some level. With frustration in all the members the team would soon be fighting amongst themselves – Yasha had already broken up two fights between Sasuke and Naruto.

They had a way of fighting that was half serious and half play-fighting. Yasha didn't understand what caused their rivalry, but it was there, so whatever. Work with it.

The brunette could guess Kakashi didn't really care what missions they were on, and Yasha was eating into his savings still, but much more slowly now he had D-Rank pays coming in… and he had a year's safety margin courtesy of Yūrei.

So normally, Yasha wouldn't care what ranked missions he was on. Without future knowledge, he wouldn't really care.

But the future had serious threats, and the team wasn't getting stronger.

Orochimaru would be invading in a matter of months. No one else knew that. Of course, Sasuke could train his butt off and still not hold a candle to Orochimaru, but nonetheless, the Uchiha could stall for time, and if he significantly improved himself he wouldn't be swayed by Orochimaru's offer of power – he'd see that Konoha gave him power anyway.

Another factor in the future was Yūrei's influence… but it wasn't like he was _solving_ problems, just giving boosts.

Naruto was weak, Yūrei gave him a one-use seal. Yasha was running out of money, Yūrei gave him an amount that would expire in a year. It was unlikely that come a year from now, Yūrei would pop back into Konoha and send more money – chances are that was it, a one-off.

The Uchiha massacre, he didn't help Yasha take kids out – he just ignored him.

It was a very _passive_ help. He did the bare minimum, in a way that Yasha basically had his most crippling problems solved but all the rest of the issues, the ones Yasha _could_ solve on his own, the Death Release carrier still had to address himself.

Yūrei was letting Yasha play out his mission from Zack, and not contributing too much to offset the decisions Yasha had to make, the problems he had to solve. He was basically feeling Yasha out.

It seemed very likely Yūrei was from the future, and knew all the points Yasha had difficulty, given the interaction with Zack. So for Yūrei to keep things close to the timeline that he knew of, the ANBU only changed things in small ways – ways he knew the old timeline version had failed, or had difficulty.

Fair enough.

The team had to get stronger. Sometimes Yasha wondered if Kakashi would ever get serious with training until the team took on a mission they couldn't handle.

Without Kakashi training them, they had to take higher-ranked missions. That'd convince Kakashi to up their training. A bit of a spiral upwards, really – higher-ranked missions means more training, makes a stronger team, which takes higher-ranked missions.

But how could Yasha even get a higher-ranked mission? And did he want to basically demand something from the jounin and get on bad terms?

Yasha sighed, testing his chakra level and then shrugging and turning to walk back home.

* * *

"Blergh! No thank you! I want a real mission, Jiji!"

The Hokage sighed and Iruka looked like he was about to explode.

"Missions are given to shinobi who are ready!"

"We're more than ready!" Naruto huffed indignantly. "I'm sick of these baby missions. I'm sick of getting scratched up by Tora. I'm mature enough to handle a real mission!"

The Hokage puffed some smoke out and began to explain the mission ranking system. Iruka nodded along with each rank approvingly. Naruto ignored both of them and contradicted himself by flopping onto his butt, turning around and monologuing to the team about ramen flavours.

Kakashi scratched his head sheepishly as the Hokage trailed off, more amused than annoyed.

"Oi! Pay attention Naruto!" Iruka yelled.

"Bah!" Naruto dismissed summarily. "I'm done with silly baby missions. I'm not a kid anymore."

Yasha rolled his eyes, shrugging slightly when the Hokage's eyes crossed over him. The old man didn't need much experience to decipher Sasuke's longing expression, either, and he was fairly confident in Kakashi being bored stiff (he was ex-ANBU after all).

Hiruzen checked his C-Rank scrolls. Ah, Tazuna, perfect. A long walk from the village, but only in Wave, a simple bandit protection detail, nothing those three couldn't handle. It was around a month long, long enough to keep Naruto shut up about D-Ranks (for a couple of months at least). And a rough-edged client would ensure Naruto's rashness was worked on.

Sasuke would be glad to see any level of action, perhaps he'd make his first kill. Yasha was a good backup for those two, he wouldn't be inattentive if both of them locked up after they made their first kill, since he made his already.

And there were few people who could get past Kakashi; the man could take on fifty bandits without losing his breath.

Perfect.

"Fine, Naruto." He watched the genin's face brighten. "I have an escort mission to the Land of Waves, a C-Rank, your team can have."

"If you wish, Hokage-sama," Kakashi said breezily, but there was just the faintest undertone of relief.

D-Ranks were what jounin went on for petty cash and relaxation. The silver-haired man had had quite enough of relaxing and he hadn't bought anything new for years. His skint in T&amp;I watching with Sharingan (watching Lion while Inoichi tested Yūrei's release codeword) had proven to Kakashi he was not as battle-ready as he had once been. He could barely keep the Sharingan active for over an hour now, and that was standing still, no jutsu copying or attack-predicting drain included.

And his needs consisted of a basically unchanging diet and rent for his apartment. Over the years he had accumulated a sizeable stock of seals, weapons and scrolls, along with the skills to remake most of them from scratch. With a single A-Rank he didn't have to worry about his apartment for a year.

These D-Ranks were beginning to grind on him.

The last new thing he had bought was the Icha Icha book, his knee-jerk reaction to being put into public sight as a jounin-sensei against his will. That was coming on three years ago. Unfortunately the series had been more addictive than he had expected…

"First real mission!" Naruto whooped, fist-punching the air as he jumped back to his feet.

_'No mention of C-Ranks in the instruction scroll,'_ Yasha thought.

_'Let's hope there's bandits,'_ Sasuke thought with a confident smirk.

_'I wonder if Wave has any bookstores?'_ Kakashi mused.

"Who are we guarding, Jiji? A princess? A Daimyo?" Naruto asked excitedly.

The Hokage hid a smirk. "Well, I'll introduce you. Tazuna-san!"

A hand slipped around the door a few seconds later and a sake-blushing old man peered at the kids. "What's with these brats? Is the short one really a ninja?"

"Why are you drinking, Tazuna-san?" Yasha asked, cutting off Naruto's angry retort before he even began.

Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow a fraction. That really wasn't the first question that came to mind. He still wasn't very good at predicting how Yasha thought, even after a week or so of D-Ranks.

Tazuna clearly wasn't expecting it either. He floundered before muttering, "None of your business, brat."

Sasuke and Naruto traded 'uh oh' looks as a fake smile appeared on Yasha's face. Kakashi tensed slightly and made ready to jump between Yasha and their client. With his faux-body-flicker, he could do some serious damage very quickly.

Yasha's smile just grew a bit bigger as his team tensed up around him. "Fine, sir. If you would be so _kind_ as to stop insulting my teammates, I may consider taking this mission, or you are welcome to eviscerate yourself on a mace. That seems less hazardous."

Kakashi winced at the imagery, a bit thankful it wasn't going to be a physical attack. He swatted the brunette on the back of the head, earning an angry glare. "Yasha, no traumatising the clients." With that, he turned to the client. "Whatever you think of the genin aside, Tazuna-shi, I am a jounin, more than capable of protecting you from bandits."

Tazuna's shocked expression reverted to disinterested. "Good. I want to leave soon." He took a swig from his bottle.

"Team, we meet up at the gates in an hour," Kakashi informed them.

"Should I bring a mace?" Yasha asked sweetly.

"I'm sure the client can provide his own if needed," Kakashi answered just as pleasantly. He wasn't too fond of his team being insulted either.

Yasha grinned in response.

The jounin took the scroll, herded the cute genin out the doors and body-flickered to his original. He'd never really gotten rid of the habit from Yūrei, sending a shadow clone everywhere. The fact it saved his bacon at least twelve times helped cement it.

Without a word he handed the scroll over to his original and dispelled himself.

Yasha gave Naruto a smile, but his insides were in a turmoil. "Head home, I'll catch up in a sec."

_'Shit. How long is this mission? I'd better leave a lot of cash with Keito,'_ he thought as he created a clone as soon as he was out of sight, feeling touches of nausea as he was reduced in chakra to just under two fifths. He dared not dispel his clone remotely in case it was holding a baby or something, so it left a second clone to go. The clone quickly donned a Henge into a rock, and he stepped outside and threw it in the bank's general direction.

He had sent shadow clones in the bank before, so he knew the bank's seals would accept shadow clones. No reason to block them; Henge could be used for fraud, but a shadow clone couldn't. If a shadow clone stole money then popped itself, the money would just fall to the floor surrounded by chakra smoke.

Once his clone had hit the bank, the clone would head to Keito and explain things.

Keito would struggle to make it by if it was weeks long… but he probably would make it. There wasn't like there was any alternatives. Yasha had bought simple recipe books and ready-cook meals, and thanks to Yūrei's donation, he had even acquired a freezer with frozen foods, enough to last a couple of months. In a pinch, Yasha even had written instructions on how to get to his own address, in case Keito had to take food from there.

He'd planned for nearly every eventuality, but this was an eight-year-old. Or maybe he was nine now. If his birthday had passed, Keito hadn't commented on it.

With a sigh, Yasha stepped back around and headed outside, catching up with Naruto who was walking very slowly home. He swatted him playfully on the shoulder. "Let's go, then!"

"Yeah, let's go!" Naruto brightened and the two began to run.

* * *

"Kunai, socks, shuriken…" Yasha hummed, carefully piling the material into his rucksack. "Anything I'm missing…?"

"You forgot saucepans dattebayo!" Naruto called from the other room.

"What? We're not taking the entire bathroom and kitchen!" Yasha yelled back, walking to the blond. "If you keep that up, your bag will be…" he blinked as he was presented with a bag taller than Naruto was. "…five feet tall."

"But we need all this stuff, dattebayo!" Naruto pointed out, gesturing at the cutlery and appliances – especially the kettle.

The brunette grinned. Trying to weasel his agreement using Yasha's love of tea. "No, we don't. Actually, all we need is a few changes of clothes, some weapons, food and drink. The rest is optional."

Naruto blinked. "Even toothbrushes?"

Yasha shrugged, moving back to the bedroom to pack some more. "Our teeth won't fall out if we don't brush them for a few days. Plus, we'll be going to another country. We can buy a new set while we're there."

"Ah… good point." Naruto scratched his head sheepishly.

"Start with your hair and work down. Anything you need for your hair, pack that – anything for your face, pack that – eyes, neck, chest, arms, hands, etcetera, you get the picture. Work down and pack anything that applies."

Naruto frowned after him, then looked at the bag. But… all of this was necessary, wasn't it?

Why did they have it in the house at all if they didn't need it?

Throwing his hands up in the air, he started to unpack things again.

In the other room, Yasha rolled his eyes as he zipped up his rucksack. Maybe he should pack a set of stuff for Naruto. Blonde idiot would probably forget to bring his forehead protector.

_'Nah, stuff it.'_ He ignored the idea. _'He made a fuss about being mature enough for C-Ranks, let's treat him like he is.'_

* * *

Kakashi waited patiently. Tazuna's smell was a bit annoying to deal with, but whatever. Cheap sake alcohol. Weird for a veteran bridge builder high-earner to go for cheap, but Wave probably had high import taxes, being an island. Maybe he'd gotten used to the taste.

Sasuke had turned up in half an hour, but not noticed the high-level environmental genjutsu Kakashi had hiding him. Kakashi had definitely been missing out on all the easy opportunities there were to mess with genin.

And the Hokage couldn't even tell him off for it; Kakashi would just say he was reminding them to be vigilant and see underneath the underneath.

Naruto and Yasha turned up about fifty minutes in. Naruto inspected the scene with just Tazuna and Sasuke and quickly became impatient. "Bahh! Where's Kaka-sensei? We're all here, why don't we just go, dattebayo!"

Kakashi watched as Yasha looked at him, frowning, then the brunette's gaze turned to Tazuna who was waiting beside him, then he looked back. Kakashi was curious – how much of him could Yasha actually see?

The Death Release carrier hummed, walking around the group, glancing up and down Kakashi. "Well, once Sensei shows up…" Kakashi chortled at his choice of verb, "we can get going."

Yasha snorted at his own sarcasm. "After all, he's not one to let us wait."

Kakashi grinned._ 'Oh, how you wound me, Yasha-chan.'_

Tazuna rolled his eyes. He was content to wait for the jounin. These kids looked a bit… uncontrolled. Barring the one with blue top and white shorts; he was reserved enough.

**_Pat pat, pat pat pat._**

Kakashi blinked, turning as his improved hearing picked up the sound. An ANBU. In a blur of motion, the ANBU's hands flicked through signs.

**_Enemy sighted, village barrier breached. Two chuunin incoming. Expected target squad 7._**

…Okay. Not even out of Konoha and two chuunin were trying their luck with him.

Kakashi sighed as he released the genjutsu. Time for fun was over. **_Acknowledged_**, he signed back. Might as well continue the mission.

"Let's go, team," the jounin said, gesturing onwards, not really paying attention to their shocked reactions to him appearing out of thin air.

What if the enemy chuunin were targeting the genin? Unlikely, Team 7 only received the mission report today. Unless there was a seriously fast information leak enemies wouldn't be waiting outside the barrier for days.

Chances are it was Tazuna, who probably entered the village within the last week or so, but there could always be someone obsessed with killing one of his genin. Obsession drove people pretty hard.

If it was chuunin with beef for Kakashi, they'd find out the hard way he was still pretty capable. If it was Tazuna, he'd abort mission.

…Actually, could he abort mission? Naruto would be all over his case, and Yasha probably wouldn't reel him in as usual. Yasha wasn't learning anything from the missions, and the dark genin knew it.

It actually made Kakashi relieved that it was Naruto who snapped out of boredom, not Yasha. Yasha's method of acquiring C-Ranks would be in words, speech with multiple layers – subplots, emotional manipulations and veiled suggestions about the village's capability and suggestions of enemy threats. Top it all off with passive-aggressiveness and hints in everything he said, for days on end.

At least with Naruto it was straightforward – he demanded what he wanted with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop.

Ah, now that the jounin looked for it, he could sense the two chuunin on the right. Not by chakra, he wasn't a chakra sensor, but the unfocused KI and small sounds as they followed in the trees gave them away. Damn, with unfocused KI it'd make it yet harder to work out who they were going for.

_'Let's hope they attack today, or I won't get any sleep tonight,'_ he thought unhappily.

* * *

Yasha hummed to himself in thought. His clone was still active in Konoha – still would be for hours on end, maybe until nightfall; the clone was set to only pop himself once his chakra grew low or he grew tired (he wasn't going to let himself run out in case he was holding the baby or something).

The clone would set up all the instructions and counter-measures it needed to so Keito could make it through the time out.

"Kaka-sensei, how long is this mission going to take?" Probably should have asked it earlier, but Kakashi had already vanished.

"Hmm… It's about half a week's journey to the coast. And then we'll be guarding Tazuna-san until he completes the bridge," Kakashi said briskly. "How long will that take, Tazuna-san?"

The old man nodded agreement. "About a month, I believe. It's nearly complete."

Yasha nodded. "If you need some extra hands, I think the bandits will lay off you while you're building the bridge. We could help out."

Kakashi frowned. He wasn't expecting Yasha to volunteer extra help when the last thing he said to Tazuna was a threat.

Tazuna was clearly a bit thrown too. "Well, you shinobi could help… I mean, I just need protection, but we are a bit short-handed."

Of course, Yasha was only thinking about getting back to Keito quicker. "No point having four guards when most… well, all of us can deal with a whole group of bandits," Yasha said breezily. "And in the blond's case here, you could probably have it done in a week."

Sasuke scowled at Yasha's not untrue point. Naruto just grinned at the recognition, brightening up.

Tazuna looked stunned, gazing Naruto up and down. "Really? He's that strong?"

"Well, that's not exactly the word I would use, but yes, he has a lot of manpower."

Kakashi rolled his eyes. _'Really, Yasha, does everything you say play on words?'_

Of course, Tazuna was totally puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Naruto immediately sprung up his hands to make a cross seal and Yasha caught one of them. "Ah, we'll see what I mean when we get there. Best not waste energy until we're past bandit territory."

The Uzumaki pouted, and Yasha just stuck his tongue out back at him.

Naruto sighed, trudging forward. "So what are we doing for all this journey then?" he asked.

"Walking?" Kakashi offered.

"Hardy-har-har," the blond replied sarcastically.

_'Sarcasm isn't really his thing. Is that another thing picked up from Yasha?'_ Kakashi wondered.

Yasha coughed to hide his grin, then spoke up. "We could have a deep philosophical discussion on the fairness of ownership, government and varying opinions of existence."

"Pass," Kakashi said immediately.

"Err, pass," Naruto affirmed straightaway.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes in disagreement.

Yasha shrugged idly. "Well, at least we're the communicative team."

"With you doing most of the communicating," Kakashi pointed out.

"I'm a people person," Yasha said, then rethought it. "Well, no, that's not true, but I'm good at people pleasing. Everyone's happy."

Tazuna grunted.

"Naruto-kun, you're happy, right?" Yasha asked.

"Well, yeah!" Naruto grinned, looking around in wonder. "This is my first time out the village, dattebayo!"

"And first time taking down bandits."

"I'll donk them right on the head, dattebayo!"

No one responded, and silence fell. Yasha chuckled. "And in the meantime we'll just walk in silence and observe the nature, I guess."

"Sounds good to me," Sasuke voiced.

Yasha shot a side-glance to him, shrugged and they walked on.

* * *

A couple of hours later, sun still high, they were still walking in the road.

Kakashi eyed an out-of-place puddle, but made no comment. Looked like the chuunin were moving in. Their KI had diminished noticeably, so it was unlikely the genin would pick up on it unless they were very attentive.

Yasha strode past the puddle, nearly stepping in it, and suddenly felt uneasy. He blinked, looking around – no changes in bird sounds, nature… what had changed? Something had.

He dropped his pace slightly, slowing down, letting the others pass him.

Kakashi picked up on the change and his thought process fried instantly. Should he push Yasha onward? Or let him handle the chuunin? Did Yasha even know where the danger was? Was he trying to save his own skin from a front attack or defend the others from a rear attack?

The jounin was behind all the others, but if he left it much longer, Yasha would be the one attacked first. He couldn't have that.

Kakashi moved to the side, meaning to push Yasha forward, only to notice Yasha was veering away from him. "Come on, Yasha," he pressed instead.

The brunette looked at him, frowning. Then his expression cleared. "Wouldn't want to waste time."

"You could get excited if you want," Kakashi offered, subtly saying he could use KI.

Yasha turned his face back forward, a dark scowl suddenly appearing. "I might just take you up on that."

Sasuke's walking had gone a bit tenser after hearing their exchange, suspecting something was up. With both of these two mysterious teammates, they often said things that didn't quite make sense, layered with hidden messages.

Naruto, meanwhile, was pretty much oblivious, a small smile on his face as he stepped further from the village.

With no sound at all, two dark figures rose up behind them. They crossed the few metres in half a second, throwing the chain around Kakashi, easily the most dangerous target. As they yanked it tight, Yasha jumped backwards out of range, the other two genin and Tazuna turning in time to see the jounin ripped to shreds.

"One down," the chuunin grinned, eyes focused on the next target – Naruto.

As they closed in on the blond, Yasha tutted at his own mistake of instinctively retreating. He quickly shifted his chakra into a low-weight Henge, diving forward.

Sasuke pulled out shuriken, flinging them in a outwards-spinning-inwards pattern, forcing the two enemy chuunin closer together, and Yasha caught on and quickly shifted his weight, with his next step jumping and spinning to the side, parallel to the ground.

This reminded him of the bell test, actually. "Naruto!" Yasha yelled, snapping the blond out of his fearful gaze.

Yasha quickly cancelled then re-applied his Henge to increase his weight to above normal. His side-on body slammed into both the enemy ninja at knee height, making them stumble, but not managing to knock them over.

The two chuunin cursed as they tried to regain their balance, the clawed gauntlets swiping at Yasha behind them.

Too far away to bodily attack the chuunin, Sasuke instead seized the opportunity from Yasha's distraction to pin the slowed bladed chain into the ground with some accurate throwing.

Naruto finally moved and made a cross seal, but by that time Yasha had already been made the enemy's next target. But the two chuunin were distracted by detaching their chain, their signature two-team weapon disabled.

Sasuke attempted to volley more shuriken at them, but they just knocked them out of the air with the gauntlets. Yasha took the opportunity Sasuke made and released the heavy Henge, rolling away on the ground as fast as he could. The poisoned gauntlets grazed across his arms and he narrowly missed heel stomps.

Then Naruto's clones barrelled into the chuunin, half of them popping from their gauntlet counter-attacks but the rest quickly overwhelming them. One of the chuunin got an arm free and tossed a volley of kunai at Tazuna, far too fast for the civilian to dodge them.

Sasuke threw a series of kunai himself to intercept, but they missed, much to his shock.

At that point Kakashi reappeared, catching the kunai out of the air effortlessly. His tone was hard and professional, and the two chuunin whitened as they realised the jounin was alive. "Alright, Naruto, hold him down. Sasuke, good job. The kunai had a genjutsu attached, you wouldn't have hit it anyway."

Sasuke tutted, but he was thankful his normally perfect aim hadn't screwed up right when it was needed the most. If only he'd had Sharingan, that would have revealed the real kunai's location.

"Yasha… how are you doing?" Kakashi asked, looking at the dirtied genin.

"Eh, they got me. Poisoned claws," Yasha held up his arms, showing centimetre-deep gorges that looked very painful and were bleeding aggressively.

One of the enemy chuunin finally managed to break free of the Naruto swarm, eyes darting around, only for Kakashi to appear behind him, kunai held at the chuunin's throat. "Okay, Demon Brothers of the Mist, Meizu and Gōzu. Bounty's not that high for you two, might explain why you're not caught yet. Hiding in a puddle when it hadn't rained for weeks… amateurs."

The chuunin growled, swiping at him, and Kakashi blurred, quickly knocking him out. "That's Meizu dealt with. Gōzu, you go from here to prison, along with your brother."

"Fu…" Gōzu began to curse him, but a well-placed hit from Kakashi shut him up.

"Any ideas about this poison?" Yasha asked, holding up his bleeding arms.

Kakashi took a sniff of it. "Acidic, blood-reactive judging from the bubbles – looks like a torture poison."

Tazuna had the most shocked reaction out of all of them. Sasuke's eyes widened, then he took in Yasha's apathetic response and smirked in realisation. Naruto just grinned back at Yasha, releasing his clones.

"Oh dear," the Death Release carrier said uncaringly, slapping his hands into a Snake seal. In half a minute the gorges and scratches were healed up.

"That's some impressive healing you've got there," Tazuna said in awe. "But aren't you still poisoned? Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm fine Tazuna-san," Yasha reassured him, eyes sharpening, "although I wasn't expecting bandits to be so adept with chakra. I'm immune to poisons; it's part of my bloodline. If I was someone else, I'd have been dead. Or rather, dying slowly."

Tazuna paled at the accusatory tone. "Um… well, you see…"

Kakashi cut him off, tone flat. "Tazuna-san, in a moment of crisis, the ninja here chose to throw a weapon at you rather than fight the person right on top of them. It's obvious who their real target is – it's you, not anyone in my team."

Tazuna gaped, but thought the better of speaking and just shut his mouth.

Kakashi pulled out some rope from a scroll and began to tie the two brothers up with well-practiced movements, still glaring at the bridge builder. "So, if you'd like to tell me what we're up against, who exactly you've made enemies with, I can call for backup. You will, of course, be charged extra."

"That's the point!" Tazuna blurted, then caught himself and continued quietly, "I can't afford a higher rank mission. The situation in Wave is desperate. Gato has a monopoly on all the imports and exports, and his own private army of criminals. My bridge would cut his profits instantly, but if he targets me, the bridge will never be done and Wave will never grow out of its poverty."

"What does Wave produce?" Yasha interjected, again asking a question Kakashi wasn't expecting.

Tazuna blinked, his emotional response off-railed. "Oh, err… it's full of mangroves, where fish come to breed. There's a lot of fish and aquatic life, but if we can't sell them, we can't make money. Gato's running the country into the ground with his taxes."

"Oh, okay. So Gato's identity aside, what stopped you from describing things to the Hokage and letting him work out alternative payments?" Yasha asked, then winced, pulling some water from his backpack and pouring it on his arms.

Tazuna looked uncertain. And guilty. "The Hokage… he didn't seem like he would care. He has his own village to take care of."

Kakashi cut the air with his hand, his one revealed eye steely. "Yes, and through your actions you've endangered members of that village. This is a B-Rank mission, minimum. We should turn back, update the rank and bring people more experienced along."

Tazuna shook his head, looking grim. "It's a timely thing, Kakashi – soon the currents will be too fierce and I won't be able to smuggle any more materials in. I have a person waiting to bring me in too – he can't fit more people on his boat, and he won't risk several trips."

Kakashi heaved a sigh. He was an S-Rank, so even if they sent an A-Ranker after him he'd be okay, but his team was vulnerable.

He turned to them to explain things, but Yasha was ahead of him. "Kaka-sensei, us lot are genin. And I think I speak for all of us when I say frankly we've seen enough of the shallow end."

The other two genin nodded firmly, and Kakashi groaned. He'd do no favours for his already slightly strained relationship with the team if he didn't go ahead with the mission. He was fairly confident he could handle any jounin sent at him, but it was still a risk with the genin.

But he had no choice. "Fine, we'll continue the mission. However, Tazuna, you'd be paying a higher ranked pay, but later – after the mission is done."

Tazuna nodded rapidly. "That's fine. Once the bridge is done, I'll have plenty of funds."

"Alright then. Forward ho," Kakashi droned, idly gesturing to his shadow clone hidden in the trees to deliver the two chuunin to the nearest village.

They moved onward, and Yasha pursed his lips. "Hey – will we actually be attacking Gato?"

Naruto glanced at him with a frown, while Sasuke just looked idly interested.

Kakashi shook his head. Aggressive as usual, but Gato _was_ the source of the problem, couldn't fault that line of reasoning. "No, that's not in the mission spec. Unless he turns up to attack us, we'll leave him be. I doubt Tazuna wants blood on his hands anyway."

"I'm not going to say I want him dead," Tazuna asserted firmly. "I do want him _gone_ though."

_'Civilians and their morals.'_ Yasha rolled his eyes, the gesture noted by Kakashi.

"Wait… is that copying thing you did earlier what you meant by manpower?" Tazuna realised, chortling as he understood the wordplay. "I see, I see! How many can you make, little man?"

Naruto was torn between the height insult and the probe to boast. "Err, a hundred or so?"

"Really?" Tazuna gaped at him. "That'll outmatch my team quite a bit then! With that sort of manpower the bridge will be done in a week!"

"Yay. Faster missions." Yasha's enthusiasm, as always, didn't make it past his personality.

"I wanted a long mission so I could see outside of Konoha more, but…" Naruto shrugged. "…if we get another C-Rank after this it's fine, right?"

Yasha nodded. "I don't see why we wouldn't. Even if this one goes pear-shaped we can't be doing D-Ranks forever, or we'd never get experience to become chuunin. If Konoha wants us to grow stronger – and I have a hard time believing they don't – then we have to be given higher-ranked missions eventually."

Kakashi coughed. "Well, mental maturity is as much your experiences as it is your physical age. Without your body's releasing the proper hormones, you'll have a hard time coping."

Surprisingly, the brooding Uchiha spoke up next. "And what happens if you're too young and the stress gets to you?"

"Well, you fail the mission, for a start. " Kakashi didn't need to be a genius to work out Sasuke's motive for asking that. "And you'd become mentally unstable. Without being able to keep a clear head, you'd be lucky if the rest of the team can pull off the mission, and then you'd have to take a vacation, or undergo psychiatric evaluation."

_'Take a vacation._' Yasha rolled his eyes again. _'Like Itachi had that opportunity. He'd probably have flipped, even without the massacre.'_

* * *

_'I was expecting a bit more observation from Sharingan Kakashi,'_ Zabuza mused, his eyes darting over the group. Kakashi easily the biggest threat, but it seems his skills had dulled since the last war.

Two black-haired boys, and a blond. And his target. Target moved like a civilian. No problems there.

One was nervous and a bit antsy, the blond. Obviously, it was because his hair stood out like a candle in this forest. Zabuza could hunt him down in seconds. He would fare better in a desert.

Zabuza moved to the other black-haired boys. Strikingly similar – same hair colour and dark eyes, but face shape was different. They weren't related then.

Both walked with confidence but casually. They knew how to handle themselves, clearly better than the blond did. One had his eyes cast up a bit, looking at the sky more than the ground.

…Wait, what was that? Zabuza focused harder. The one who was looking up idly was… giving off a serious feeling of danger. It wasn't killer intent, that was for sure, the person was as calm as could be. It had to be Zabuza's own instincts, then. Something was off about that kid.

Judging from his equipment, he was a normal Konoha genin. But if his instincts were warning him, it had to be something unapparent. Maybe a bloodline.

Confident and a dangerous bloodline. Interesting. Zabuza marked him as second most dangerous.

Konoha motto was watching out for people, so they weren't likely to let him go if he killed Tazuna then booked it, so it looked like he had to attack the group first. A civilian wouldn't be able to flee fast enough or silently enough to hide from him.

The genin would probably scatter if he put some fear into them – that was fine in Zabuza's book. Killing kids got you no bounty and no experience – wasn't even a challenge.

His best bet was targeting the most dangerous. If he got Kakashi trapped, he could send clones to chase off the genin. He doubted even a high-level genin could fend off his water clones.

Kakashi had one eye covered right now – the Sharingan eye, clearly. So he wasn't capable of seeing that the pond they were about to cross in front of them was saturated with chakra.

It was a risky manoeuvre to sacrifice a good portion of your chakra before the battle begun, but now they had gone exactly into his killing zone, it had just paid for itself. He just had to force Kakashi into stepping on the water, and then he could trap him, scare the kids away, and deal with Tazuna at his leisure.

Kakashi knew about water types, but he wasn't used to water ambush tactics. He'd detect the water heaviness the second he set foot on the water surface, though, so… best bet was to attack before he set foot on it, with the genin a couple foot behind him.

Even a genin could interfere if they were that close.

First, a diversion and a cheap, showy attack at Kakashi. If Kakashi really was slow-witted, that'd be enough. If not, Zabuza had to try intimidating as much as possible – buying time when Kakashi had his Sharingan bared would eat into his chakra supply. If he kept Kakashi's focus high on him, he'd not notice the chakra in the water on the ground. Then Zabuza could hide the water – and everything – and defeat the Sharingan with some chakra-saturated mist.

If he could get Kakashi edgy by appearing over-confident and leering, even better. It'd make him divide his attention.

End goal was getting Kakashi onto the water for Water Prison. He'd have to move fast – Kakashi could defeat a 10% powered water clone easily, but he wouldn't know that it was a mere 10%. The arrogance could pull him down.

Zabuza grinned, releasing the white rabbit and body-flickering upwards into the air.

"There!" he heard the blond yell, throwing a kunai.

Slow. He could dodge kunai at that speed easily, even if he wasn't thirty feet above it. Looked like it missed the rabbit, too. Zabuza angled himself carefully, letting gravity pull him downwards, and as he reached the right height he launched the sword at speed.

If Kakashi was slow enough for this to hurt any of them, then this team wasn't going to survive their next opponent anyway.

"Down!" Kakashi yelled, and everyone piled down, blond last. Zabuza landed softly, mild pain shooting up his legs.

The blade flew past them, narrowly missing the blond.

Pity. Looked like things weren't going to be that easy.

Zabuza watched it fly and embed half-way into the tree, then flickered again. As he had been facing Kakashi and had now gone past him, his back was to Kakashi as he landed. That was a mistake, but he didn't bother to correct it.

He could see the alarm on Kakashi's face, after all.

* * *

"Guys, stay back. This opponent is way above you."

Kakashi ran through his options and grabbed his headband in the next second.

"Oh? So I get to see the prized Sharingan," came the enemy's mocking reply.

Yasha blinked as Sasuke's jaw dropped. Well, Kakashi sounded like he was getting serious, pulling out his trump card in front of the last Uchiha.

Yasha had been wishing for a high-level opponent to snap them out of low-level training, but this was... unexpectedly early.

The Death Release user stepped back mentally, evaluating the enemy.

Back to Kakashi, eye fixed on him. Arrogant, but not stupid. Giant sword meant strength, melee attacker, chalk another factor to brawn over brains. But even if he was slow for a jounin, he was faster than all three genin, that was for sure. His strength was probably his highest attribute, but even if he was bad at something he'd exceed all the genin in it.

This enemy was likely to kill all of them if Kakashi couldn't handle him.

Yasha couldn't even use Death Release. He couldn't risk attacking his teammates, and if he separated to use it, he'd be an easy target and so would they. They couldn't defend themselves from someone of this level, and if he KI'd them into unconsciousness and the jounin shrugged the Ki off… their chances would go from minimal to nothing.

Yasha could outsmart him – shadow clone, and Henge into a tiny object. Let the object be thrown, or just dropped on the ground. He had a way to retreat – he doubted the enemy jounin would want to chase him even if he did notice the trick.

But even if he spilt that retreat trump card to the other two genin, there was nothing stopping the enemy from attacking again after they'd retreated. And besides that, Tazuna would be compromised; he couldn't pull off a Henge.

Retreat wasn't going to work unless they split up, and Yasha didn't trust Naruto's ability to find his way back. But with retreat and defence being impossible, the only option left was attacking.

But approaching an enemy of this level was suicide. Come to think of it, if he died on a mission, the Uchiha brats would be abandoned.

Eh, Keito would cotton on to something being wrong. He'd spill the beans and get the kids rescued – although Danzō would probably have his share.

Yasha cringed at the idea.

He couldn't afford dying here. But would he compromise Team 7 to retreat safely?

Well, he was of little help to Kakashi. If Kakashi couldn't win this, Yasha's help wouldn't affect much.

Sasuke… Itachi would have his hide, but he doubted Itachi really would kill him for running in face of an enemy that could even beat Kakashi.

Naruto… didn't have much going for him. But wait, the Bijū in Naruto might have something to say about dying early. Maybe a bit of mind transmission to the Bijū would get the point across.

Okay, so he was not thrilled about abandoning Sasuke, and Naruto was the next line of defence if Kakashi fell. Abandoning Naruto was… he disliked that option. Naruto was easily the biggest asset he had, in many ways – weapon, Bijū, chakra source, link to village, loyalty, and an easy source of emotional boosts.

That left Tazuna, who he didn't really care much about. If Kakashi fell, he might as well offer the bridge builder to this enemy. Of course, the enemy might kill them anyway, to hide his identity, but… no, not likely.

If the enemy cashed in on Kakashi's bounty, that would mean most of the underground knew who took care of him. And if he killed the genin team with Kakashi, by extension that'd be obvious too.

Missing-nins were motivated by money, he wouldn't miss out on Kakashi's bounty along with payment for Tazuna.

No, this enemy had more to gain by letting them go. Naruto was a Jinchūriki, and Sasuke was "the last Uchiha", both deaths would score a lot of aggression from Konoha.

Of course, the enemy could be a big hater of Konoha-nin in general, but missing-nin didn't care about village loyalty anymore, and with that disloyalty went village prejudice.

It was still a strong possibility he hated Konoha though. Worth watching out for.

So, help Kakashi if possible, but if Kakashi fell, offer Tazuna and retreat. As much as the other two on his team were gung-ho about loyalty and white morals, Yasha wasn't prepared to die for some random person over the matter of a few thousand ryou, and unless he wanted to unleash the Kyuubi or risk killing his teammates with Death Release, they had no chance of beating him.

If offering Tazuna failed, get Naruto to buy time with multiclone, and arrange the low-weight Henge trick with the other genin. The enemy would be unlikely to track them.

Yasha's frown faded as he came back to himself, giving one last look over the enemy. His choices weren't nice, but they would mean the greatest chance of survival.

He grinned._ 'Let's roll.'_

* * *

Zabuza frowned. The black-haired dangerous one had grinned… and it was one of those cunning smirks. He was one of those scheming types. He definitely had some tricks up his sleeve.

Kakashi was gazing up at him, Sharingan bared. Good, he felt threatened. As expected, a Konoha-nin's first instinct was to protect the team. Not only was the rest of his team far below Kakashi, he had a client to worry about too. An elderly person at that. He was massively disadvantaged here.

Zabuza grinned behind his bandages. Kakashi was formidable, but with so many weak allies to watch out for, he was a pawn in his hand.

* * *

Zabuza let the black-haired genin explain the Sharingan to the blond. While he knew plenty about it, having a genin confirm it was faintly reassuring. Plus, it added up extra seconds where Kakashi had the Sharingan bared and lost chakra.

But soon Zabuza grew impatient. The blond looked battle-hungry, but he also looked completely naïve to battle. This little battle should wizen him up.

The black-haired one, the less dangerous-feeling one, looked distant. Not focused on the battle, just reeling off Sharingan details.

In stark contrast, the other black-haired conniving one was staring right at him, hands in pockets. Stance was a mix between ready and relaxed. A small smirk still remained on his face, but the rest of his expression was intense focus. He definitely looked ready, but that posture was unnerving – was his bloodline one of those that meant attacking his body was a bad idea? Had he already activated some sort of technique?

Well, he'd let the water clones handle it. For now, it was time to deploy the perfect jutsu to counter the Sharingan.

"Then let's see your Sharingan work thorough this," he taunted.

With a hand seal, he let part of his chakra in the lake rise, the water rapidly evaporating and spreading. In seconds a thick fog covered the area, and Zabuza smirked. Not a single breath of wind – no one had moved.

Kirigakure no Jutsu [Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu] was a D-Rank, mostly because it took a lot of chakra to work. Generally, it took quite a time to build up, but with him injecting chakra into the water beforehand, he could pull it up with ease.

It was also a D-Rank as most times jounin had sharp enough reflexes to dodge attacks in the fog anyway. But used against genin… not a chance.

And then the blond started yelling something about not seeing, and Zabuza suppressed the urge to lob a kunai at him for his idiocy. But soon the blond was hushed.

It was cute the way people thought if they stayed silent, he wouldn't know where they were.

He shut his eyes, smirking.

Real cute.

* * *

Sasuke gasped for air, suddenly choking. His eyes darted around, scrabbling at his throat. Genjutsu… no. No, he recognised this feeling.

**_His mother making tomato teriyaki. Sharingan eyes approaching over her shoulder, a sword slowly approaching._**

_'No… not again. Not again.'_

He knew he stood no chance against a jounin. Zabuza was going to kill him. Sasuke found his kunai pointing inwards, his grip shaking.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi called, and he blinked, snapping out of it. Kakashi was releasing just as much killing intent. "Don't worry. I won't let my teammates die."

Sasuke heaved a shuddering sigh, forcing himself to relax. He pushed the feeling aside.

It wasn't his battle. Kakashi was fighting for him. He was fine.

"Big words," came an unfamiliar voice behind, and Sasuke spun, kunai swinging, only to have it casually batted away. He rolled with the follow-up kick, and as he skidded away, he mentally cursed. Minor injury. Zabuza was just pushing him out of the way.

Target was Tazuna, or his team. Didn't matter. He had to get back there.

* * *

Naruto reeled, flying backwards. Zabuza had just appeared right in the middle of their formation, and with a single swing of his sword knocked everyone flying. He could see Kakashi appear next to Zabuza, just in time to catch the sword before it cut Tazuna. He grinned even as he rolled across the ground, trying to stop the momentum.

Naruto knew how tough Kakashi was. Zabuza was going to get his butt kicked.

* * *

Yasha had been knocked away with the rest of them. With a growl, the brunette activated Henge again, and switched his weight to as heavy as he could make it, instantly killing his momentum across the ground.

He dove back, two kunai ready in his hands, but stopped in his tracks when he realised he couldn't see half a metre. There was struggling and someone muttering threats in front of him. Yasha strained to work out where the voice was coming from. He could hear other footsteps coming back, obviously the other two teammates.

Yasha jolted as a loud splash came from the side. He jumped forward, Henge set to very dense to avoid damage, and found Tazuna sprawled on the ground. Thankfully, he didn't seem injured.

The fog was lifting too. Kakashi had handled it then. Good.

Yasha squinted, but as much as the swarms helped him see at night, they didn't really help much with low visibility. He gestured at Tazuna to get up, and stood ready, and flinched in aborted movement as Sasuke emerged from the fog, followed shortly by Naruto.

Yasha heaved a sigh of relief as the fog lifted further, then his sigh caught in his throat as he saw Kakashi trapped in a sphere of water.

_'What… how did he even…'_ he thought in shock. Kakashi beaten?

Yasha was so stunned by the turn of events he actually couldn't form a thought for a few seconds. He had made plans, but he'd never thought he actually had to carry it out.

Kakashi was an elite and taking things seriously. How had he lost?

Not even a second later it was obvious, as his gaze went over Tazuna who was still getting helped up by Naruto.

Weak teammates.

Kakashi had deliberately exposed himself to Zabuza in order to get Zabuza to focus on him. It worked, but a bit _too_ well. Now Kakashi was imprisoned underwater, with Zabuza apparently stuck to his side maintaining the prison.

Was Zabuza planning to let Kakashi drown right in front of them? Scare tactics?

Well, it'd work, if Sasuke didn't have Uchiha ego and Naruto didn't have Naruto naïvety. And Yasha had seen people die by his own hand. Zabuza was intimidating, but not cripplingly so.

Most important about Zabuza right now was he was exposed. The fog was gone and there was a clear line of sight. But was it that simple? Would he really expose himself?

Yasha switched the grip on his kunai and flung one of them. Zabuza carelessly side-swiped it out of the air with his free hand. Yasha tutted.

"In a hurry, aren't we?" Zabuza smirked. "Don't worry, I'll finish things up quickly."

With a one-handed seal Yasha froze as a water clone rose up beside the original Zabuza. The clone smirked, approaching the team.

Elemental clones, Yasha should have seen it coming… but now he had Kakashi trapped _and_ an attacker incoming. An attacker that was stronger than Yasha… wait. What had he read in the scroll? And he had talked with Shikaku.

Elemental clones didn't retain their user's strength. Yasha's mind flashed back to what Shikaku had said: _"People normally don't bother improving their intelligence past a certain balance – between losing 50% of your chakra making a 30% of your potential in a clone, you normally wouldn't bother. It takes a high level of skill to use elemental chakra, even your own affinity, so much of the effort of converting is lost. _

_"You have to figure out the ratio for yourself; some people can make 10% -ability clones with 5% of their chakra and so can release multiple clones easily. Plus, if the element is plentiful in the environment, it uses even less chakra to draw it together – and even further less if a clone was destroyed and shortly after, a clone technique was used. The chakra of the user remains within the destroyed elements for a good while; the quicker you recreate the clone, the less effort it takes."_

Bringing himself back, he frowned. So… this wasn't 100% of Zabuza's strength. It might not even be 20%. At 20% a jounin's speed… was that beatable? Well… he had one speed technique that would work, his lightweight Henge. But he'd have to make it quick, instantly attack the clone and then the original.

If he let Zabuza catch his breath, right next to a huge water source and the remnants of his water clone, he'd face another clone in seconds.

Flipping his other kunai around, he was about to attack, when Kakashi's yell stopped him short. "DON'T!"

He blinked. "What?"

"Run, you three! Get away from here! His clones won't be able to chase you!"

_'Maybe not immediately, but after he kills you he has no reason to stick around,'_ Yasha thought to himself. _'And none of us are that good at hiding our tracks. Kakashi's lost it.'_

He turned and looked at Sasuke and Naruto, who stares switched to him briefly, before all three's expressions became determined. Yasha nodded shortly at them, then turned back, facing the clone, suppressing his intentions as much as possible.

In an instant, he switched weight and flung himself towards the water clone, the kunai in his hand slicing through its side. Still moving as fast as he could, his lightweight Henge spun towards the original Zabuza, kunai ready…

* * *

Naruto grinned as Yasha's speed caught Zabuza completely off-guard. The clone had barely started to dissolve into water by the time Yasha reached the real Zabuza. His grin turned into horror as Zabuza's sword blurred and crashed into Yasha with a sickening crunch, brutally deflecting his entire momentum and sending the brunette flying across the river.

"Yasha!" Naruto yelled, making a familiar cross seal and it didn't help one bit. In seconds a Zabuza clone blocked his path, turning his clones into smoke with ease.

The blond cursed, churning out more clones and running forward as fast as possible. The Zabuza clone just grinned, and with agonisingly slow sweeps of his sword mowed them down, and kicked the remaining Naruto in the chest, shoving him backwards.

Naruto clutched his chest, but tuned it out quickly and got back up, ready to fight again when a hand caught his shoulder. "Naruto! Knock it off!"

The Uzumaki blinked. "Sasuke?"

Sasuke glared at him. "We need a plan."

Naruto frowned, opened his mouth in protest, then a second later shut it and nodded. "I have a plan."

The Uchiha nodded. "Okay. What is it?"

"This!" Naruto mass-cloned again, and all the clones ran for Zabuza's clone.

Sasuke blinked and watched them carefully, but soon concluded it was the exact same strategy as before and heaved a sigh.

The clone Zabuza just rolled his eyes. "Shadow Clones might be impressive for a genin, but…" he gripped his sword and his eyes narrowed, "several times nothing is still nothing."

So saying, he again swept through them, and the few that managed to predict and dodge him were just victims to his second wave of faster strikes.

Naruto was sent skidding backwards again, pulling a large shuriken out of his backpack. He tossed it to Sasuke, who caught it and had to readjust his balance, spinning with the catch momentum. _'Weight on this is too heavy... oh. So that's the plan. Clever, Naruto.'_

And thankfully, he knew a technique that would make this much more effective. Kage Shuriken no Jutsu [Shadow Shuriken Jutsu].

Carefully and deliberately, he let Naruto's shuriken fold outwards, making sure the Zabuza clone was watching, while his other hand pulled his own shuriken from his backpack. With a deft application of chakra he jumped, rapidly unfolding the second shuriken and flinging both.

An irritating memory passed him of training and begging a certain someone to train him, but he ignored it and flung the shuriken, making sure he was glaring at the clone Zabuza as if aiming for him.

He eyed the shuriken as they arced through the air.

Perfect execution. He landed, and watched, not letting his face betray anything. Naruto was similarly blank-faced, although on the blond it was unusual.

The clone Zabuza was expecting it to be aimed at him, and was surprised when the arc brought it wide around him.

The real Zabuza disinterestedly caught the upper shuriken. "Too easy," the jounin taunted, then his eyes widened and he jumped over the second fuma shuriken with half a second to spare, his other hand not moving from the water prison.

The lower shuriken flew under him, and transformed back into Naruto, who flung the kunai at Zabuza's arm.

In two seconds it was over. Without focus, the Water Prison and water clone dissolved, Kakashi shot up out of the Prison like a bat out of hell, and Zabuza realised the battle suddenly became overwhelmingly in Team 7's favour.

Fuming, the Mist shinobi went to fling the fuma shuriken at the blond boy who had caused it, but found himself staring at a red spinning Sharingan, packed with more malice and killing intent than he'd ever felt before. A shiver ran up his spine.

_'Shit.'_

* * *

Naruto watched Kakashi briefly, then hastily swam to the side of the pond, not sparing any time. He quickly pulled himself out, and ran to his best friend, not paying attention to the sound of angrily swirling water behind him.

"Yasha! Are you okay…" Naruto's question trailed off in horror as he saw his teammate. The entire left side of his chest caved in and a huge pool of blood surrounding him.

"Sasuke!" Naruto screamed desperately.

Sasuke skidded to a halt beside him. "What… the hell? How did he manage to…?" his voice trailed off, suddenly realising who was hearing it.

"What do we do?!" Naruto pleaded at him, tears streaming down his face.

"Get out the way," Kakashi ordered, pushing Naruto aside, green medical chakra humming on his hands. "Crushed ribcage. Heart's stopped. Left lung's filled. Naruto, get your gauze out, hurry. Sasuke, bandage rolls."

Kakashi tried not to look at Yasha's glassy expression. This scene was very unpleasantly like Obito. Even the same side was crushed.

With his Sharingan, he knew Zabuza had only meant to deflect Yasha slightly, and have him slide past him into the lake, but because Yasha's density was so far reduced, the entire side of his body was caved in by the side of the sword instead of knocked. Zabuza's shock was obvious to the Sharingan too, not that it would save his life.

That stupid technique. If only Kakashi had known what it was, he would have ordered Yasha to never use it. Any idiot could see the risks were too great. Now he had a genin dying on a fucking C-Rank.

This medical technique wasn't going to heal him. He'd spent so long fucking around in the water prison he'd lost half his chakra reserves. And this technique was only a copy of someone else's, and you can't copy medical chakra, because it's used based on the fucking injury _there at the time_ and no two injuries are alike.

Cursing repeatedly, the Friend-Killer Kakashi let the technique die.

_'Well, only one choice and let's hope to fuck it works.'_ A few hand seals later he laid his hands over Yasha's heart, channelling the lightning. Yasha's body jerked, but didn't react.

"Naruto, you…" One glance at Naruto and he gave up. The kid was somewhere else entirely, glazed eyes, gone into shock. Fuck.

He couldn't deal with that right now. Focus on the real injury.

"Sasuke," the jounin snapped.

"Here." Sasuke gave him the rolls, although Kakashi had no idea what to do with them. The only bleeding was where the ribcage _hadn't_ collapsed and had been forced through the skin instead. Most of the damage was internal. Kakashi cursed as his Sharingan replayed the recorded scene and he saw every part of the collapsing ribcage in slow motion.

So much for fucking medical textbook 'add gauze and wind bandages'. That wasn't going to cut it. Yasha's regeneration was all that could save him now. And that only worked if he was conscious, and he wasn't going to get conscious with his heart compressed like that.

Kakashi swore under his breath again. "Get Naruto out of here. He's not going to want to see this."

Not caring if Sasuke had responded, he pulled out a kunai and slit Yasha's body, pushing his hand in and trying to move things back into place and relieve the pressure. He tried to tune out the sound of slopping blood. Hastily replaying all his memories on biology structure, his Sharingan began to burn from strain as he tried to see what he was doing under the skin.

At least his heart wasn't actually punctured, but with that amount of blood he'd be shocked if an major artery wasn't severed somewhere. He could hear Sasuke dragging a totally silent Naruto away.

Then his Sharingan noted the second injury, the finisher. Yasha had hit his head on the rocks around the water as he landed. Even with his density resetting in mid-air, he'd still got enough impact trauma to be knocked out on landing.

If that hadn't happened Yasha would probably have been aware for a few seconds before his brain starved of oxygen. He would have tried to regenerate. Maybe it would've worked.

Why did he use that technique? That was so stupid!

"Yasha, you fucking moron," he cursed again, pulling out his blood-soaked hand. Rapidly, he made seals again, channelling lightning.

Barring the nervous system jerking the body, there was no response.

No, _he_ was the fucking moron. What kind of idiot gets himself trapped to a jounin like Zabuza? What kind of fucking moron lets himself get so out of shape he drags down fucking GENIN?!

There was a time when captains used to send him to take out whole squads of jounin. Not now. Couldn't even handle one jounin.

Layering the gauze onto the external injuries he ignored the bandage rolls entirely. It'd just compress the shattered ribcage again and cause more problems.

At full body flicker speed he might make it back to Konoha… in a few hours. Wave was ahead, but apparently the country had gone to shit. No decent medical.

No, forget body flickers. Didn't even have chakra for that any more. It was what he could slap together here and now, or nothing.

He had about three minutes before there was brain damage from oxygen starvation (thank you, Root handbook). Three fucking minutes.

Kakashi could see something dark pooling in Yasha's body. The insects swarms were activating, starting to leave. Didn't look like he even had three minutes.

Dog summons, useless. Zabuza, his original was dealing with. Sasuke, useless, Naruto, very useless. Environment, trees, lakes, grass, sky, useless. Tazuna, useless.

He just had to keep trying. Kakashi's clone made the seals again, feeling his chakra starting to run low.

* * *

**AN:** Yasha made a subtle mistake.

He correctly calculated that Zabuza's clone was not at full power, and thus would be susceptible to his high speed attack… but he didn't consider that the _real_ Zabuza would be at full jounin speed, and he'd see Yasha coming.

That mistake cost him his life.


End file.
